Death of the old, Beginning of the new
by Servine Thistle
Summary: Follow Leon Belmont through his dangerous trek against the evil dark hordes of Castlevania, so he can save his beloved Sara and put a stop to Walter Bernhard once and for all. He also may uncover something that he wasn't expecting.
1. Chapter 1- Death

Chapter 1- Death

Mathias returned to quite a small castle. He took a deep breath, he had just came back from a frustrating meeting with the Church.  
Father did not agree that the soldiers that they had were being assassinated by monsters during the night. Monsters that came from the wicked Castlevania; Walter's horde of devils. However, Father had ignored his advice to attack the castle with full force, that was the best option. Mathias knew that Walter's hordes would become too much for them to deal with. Strangely, no one had ever seen the Vampire. All they have heard was his laugh, which echoed throughout the castle and the surrounding thick misty forest. Just thinking about that sent a shiver down his spine.

He pulled off his large overcoat and placed it on the dedicated hook. He was just about to take his shoes off when a thought brushed passed his mind. Knowing that something was wrong, he rushed upstairs to see his beloved. The stairs that his feet collided with were made of mahogany, they gave off a white sheen with their newly waxed surface. The banister was also made of mahogany, the balusters spiralled up and were evenly spaced. He dashed up the stairs with caution, trying not to force the beautiful landscape paintings to fall from the wall. With haste, he ran down the long corridor, his leather boots broke the silence as he went and he opened the door at the end, ignoring all the other seventeen rooms that he passed. Quickly he opened the door, causing a strong breeze to be created from it.  
"Cornelius...?"  
Cornelius Fernandez was Mathias' Sorcerer. He wore a dark purple long rob that covered what he was wearing on his feet. The cuffs, bottom rim and neck parts all had a piece of fabric that was a different colour to the rest of the robe; the cuffs and the bottom rim were a gold colour, the neck part was almost a magenta colour. It had a hood, which he had down at the moment. He wore an amulet, which had a gorgeous crimson ruby in the centre, encased in a golden outer shell and a silver chain. His skin tone was quite lighter than most humans, but not Vampire tone. Long dark brown hair draped over his eyes and shoulders, but the hair was clearly darkening due to his ties to the darkness. His eyes were also a purple, magenta colour. Eventually, they might turn black. Mathias knew that, in his youth, Cornelius has beautiful long blond locks and piecing sea blue eyes. However, that was before he started to learn Black Magic.

The Sorcerer moved up from his chair and Mathias saw her. Elizabetha lying motionless under her fluffy white sheets. Her breathing was shallow, which worried Mathias to no end. She had become ill with something that Mathias didn't understand. Cornelius described is as a bacterial infection, he said that one of her organs had become infected, probably her bladder. But that wasn't all, he claimed that she had a parasite in her gut along with blood poisoning. He got all of that from gently waving his hand over her body. Mathias did not understand because humans did not possess the knowledge about medicine that the Supernatural did. They have millions of text, thousands of books on how to magically treat any disease that a human, demon, Vampire, werewolf and even animal could get. Knowledge that humans could only dream of having, if only the 'good' Supernatural creatures could share their knowledge. Sadly they are in fear of being burnt at the stake because of it.  
"How is she doing?"  
"Not great..." he spoke in a posh British voice, "If she can last about thirty-six hours, that will give my Elixir enough time to cure her."  
"Why can you not give it to her now?"  
"Sadly it needs time to stew."  
"It is going to take that long to stew?"  
"Yes, blame the imp toenail and Chimera tongue. They take forever to become edible."  
Mathias tried not to throw up at the sound of the ingredients that his friend was going to be giving to his wife soon.  
Gently, she opened her eyes, "Mathias?" She said extremely weakly.  
"Yes my sweet."  
He bent down to hold her hand and stroke her boiling face.  
"If I die..."  
"That is not going to happen, we have Cornelius. He is a great...doctor."  
The Sorcerer gave a slight smile, Mathias was still not true to her. He had been brought into the secret world because a powerful Demon killed his parents when he was only a young boy.  
He was left alone in the castle and he ventured every night because it calmed him from his sorrows. When he was ten an Alpha Warg attacked him and Cornelius was hunting the Warg for its fangs so he could place them into a potion. The creature had slashed the boy and the Sorcerer healed him. The two of them became good friends, which sort of saved Cornelius from going insane from knowing so much Black Magic, a friend to keep him away from the darkness.

Elizabetha acted as both of their lights, she was pure and innocent. Probably the reason why Mathias never introduced her to the world of magic. Plus she might fear his hidden Alchemy skills.  
"Cornelius?" Elizabetha said.  
Her voice brought him out from his thoughts, "Yes my lady?"  
"You looked as if you were daydreaming, so I thought I would snap you out-" a violent cough struck her.  
"Elizabetha!" Mathias stressed.  
The cough didn't stop.  
Cornelius turned around, waved his hands and a cup of water appeared in his hands, he gave it to her. Sipping the water, the cough went away.  
"You need your rest my lady." He said as he left the room to check on the Elixir.

 _ **32 hours and thirty minutes later...**_

Mathias had fallen asleep beside Elizabetha's bed. It was sweet to see the both of them lying there peacefully. Cornelius had given the Elixir to her half an hour ago. He just had to give it time to work.

 _..._

Her breathing had stopped...

Cornelius' eyes widened, he rushed from his leaning position against the door to her side, shoving his master and friend out of the way. Immediately, Mathias awoke upon impact with the floor. He rubbed his head as he saw Cornelius just before he clapped his hands to create an electrical charge and snapped them on his wife. Mathias got up and looked over the Sorcerer's shoulder.  
Desperately, he tried to get Elizabetha back, but even with all of his magic, she was gone.  
"...She only needed ten minutes... the Elixir would have worked..."  
Tears came to Mathias, waterfalls fell from his eyes. He tried to hold them back, but it was inevitable.  
"You like what we did Mathias!?" A voice.  
It came from the entrance hall, the two of them left Elizabetha and ventured downstairs. Mathias could not believe his eyes.

An Angel stood before him. His hair was shoulder length, a beautiful light platinum blond, he swished it as he smiled. His eyes were a bright icy blue, Mathias couldn't help get lost in them. His complexion was light, similar to Cornelius. His face was quite angular but it didn't make it look more stunning to see. His wings were large, twice the size of his body, which he stood at about 5'9." Each feather was perfectly groomed, they were all inline like a perfectionist styled them so he looked his best. Even the natural golden Angelic Dust that is secreted from their pours, looked too perfect. This gave the feathers a slight golden tint to them as they shone in the early morning light. He wore a large white cloth that was hung over his left shoulder and it reached down to his knees, covering his torso and part of it went around his waist. A shining golden glowing glass looking halo levitated just above his head.

As he walked forwards, there was no sound from his bare feet, since he walked on his forefoot, but it looked more like his tiptoes.  
Mathias was shocked, "W-what are you doing here? Who are you?"  
"I am the Angel Samiel, your wife. I am truly sorry, she is in a better place."  
Mathias approached the Angel, "You are here to take her away... No, BRING HER BACK!"  
Samiel was surprised at the sudden outburst, "I apologise, however her death was necessary."  
"For what!?" His rage boiled.  
The Angel smiled, "Sadly, I am unsure of the truth. Even if I did know, I would be unable to tell you, the Archangel Of Secrets; Raziel would not be happy."  
"Bring her back." He muttered.  
"I am sorry Mathias."  
Cornelius placed his hand on his friend's shoulder.  
"He has a plan for your beloved."  
"... ... A plan?"  
"Yes, the Lord has a plan for everyone upon their birth. Destiny. No one can really change it. Humans have an inner clock let us say when their time is up they pass on. Ready to begin their life again."  
"...You are not making any sense!" The tears came down quicker.  
"You may see her in another one of her lives." He hinted.  
"The heck is that supposed to mean... She will come back? Tell me!"  
Samiel stayed quiet.  
"Stop with the hidden message and tell me! What do I need to do to see her again?"  
"Death..."  
With that, he vanished.

Mathias' legs collapsed, causing him to fall, Cornelius caught him on the way down. 'Death.' What could he have meant by that, his hand touched the stone that was in his pocket.  
Suddenly, he jumped up and headed outside. On his way he grabbed a bunch of crazy ingredients and a small cauldron, filling it up with water before he left. With haste, he placed all the ingredients into the pot and then added the powdered toadstool.

Poof...

A large black smoke came from the pot as Cornelius entered the garden. There was a large roaring and groaning sound as a figure appeared. It was a skeleton wearing a large black hood, barring his bony hands with a massive scythe. Giant black Angel wings, which looked similar to crow's wings sprouted from the cloak.  
"Who dare summons me from my work!?" It said.  
"I do not think this was what the Angel was talking about," Cornelius said.  
"An Angel came to you?" It sounded intrigued, "Which one?"  
"One named Samiel, he claimed that God had a plan for my wife. She only needed ten minutes and my Sorcerer's Elixir would have finished healing her."  
"Oh... Samiel... I do not think I have heard of him before... Must be his first time down from heaven."  
Mathias looked a little confused.  
"Ok I am a Reaper or an Angel of Death, I collect souls of the dead that live on this world and only this world, I then send them to the master Angel of Death; the Archangel Azrael. Tell me, what was the first thing he said to you?"  
"'You like what we did with here.'" He repeated.  
"Definitely an Angel of Death."  
"Why does he not look like you?"  
"Obviously, he is closer to Azrael than I am..."  
"You mentioned other worlds."  
"Let's not get into that, only Supernatural creatures can be aware of that, I should not have even mentioned it in the first place. Anyway, why have you summoned me?"  
"I wish for Elizabetha back."  
"... She has gone..."  
Mathias looked away in despair.  
"Though I know how you can see her in her next life."  
"How?"  
"You must become a powerful Vampire."  
Cornelius had a bad feeling about all of this, it just felt like one big trick to him, "I would not go through with this Mathias."  
However, he ignored his warning, "What do I have to do?"  
"Destroy Walter. I will use his soul to make you powerful. However, you lack the strength to beat him. Future tells of a blond haired warrior, wielding a whip, defeating him."  
"...Leon?"  
"Have him do it for you. But how you get him to do it is up for you to decide. Once he is defeated summon me using that stone and we will define the will of God."  
He vanished.  
"Are you on board with this or not Cornelius?" He said sensing his friend's distrust of the idea.  
"Becoming a Vampire... it is not a pleasant experience and you may be waiting centuries for Elizabetha's reincarnation."  
"I am willing to wait..."  
"Is Leon's life worth it?"  
"I know he will survive... he is strong..."  
"Okay then, I stand beside you."  
"Good."


	2. Chapter 2- Abduction

Dead bodies messily lay across the filth covered floor, they were beginning to decompose and create a revolting smell throughout the room. The smell was so vile that no one dared to go anywhere near the room as a human could start to smell it at the bottom of the overly large tower. It was a mixture of rotting flesh, manure, urine and sweat. Some of the bodies had been there for so long they had no skin or muscle, just rotting bone. Over five hundred bodies that lay on the ground, some of their bones had been chew up and broken.  
Faeces and urine were mashed into the floor and it went halfway up the walls. This forced the natural dust that was in the room to clump together, making the ground very sticky to walk upon. The muck wasn't anywhere near the large wooden door, that part was clean, except for the dust that had been blown over due to time.

The room was in one of the highest towers in the castle, so it wasn't very big and it only had one large window, which had metal bars attached to it. A large dull crimson coloured curtain was attached to the top of the window and draped down into the disgusting muck below, causing about half of it to be covered in it.

A dirty chain was fixed to the centre of the room, leading off to the window. It was long, but it wasn't long enough to reach the door. A creature sat upon the end of the iron chain, he stayed in the windowsill with one leg slightly hanging over the edge. His bright pinky eyes staring off into the outside world, he saw his ginger master carrying a young maiden over his shoulder. He watched as he carried her in, all the Demon wanted to do was to please his master. Sadly, he's a grain of dirt under Walter's massive foot.

The creature could just barely see his reflection in the dusty barred up glass. He noticed the glow in his eyes was beginning to grow dim, it had been doing so the past one hundred years. He would only get one meal roughly every fifty years if he was lucky he might get fed in between them. Long clumps of a coated mess that was his hair slung down his shoulders. As far as he knew his hair almost black, but that was because of the muck that had always been there, ever since he was young. His body was skinny, it was surprising that he could bare his own weight, he was practically bone at this point. His large black wings had become locked in one position, all he knew was they were larger than the room that he was in, so he never could fully stretch them out. To make matters worse, they were both broken, the left one was dislocated and had been for around thirty years. The filth covered his entire naked skinny frame, on his hands, legs and feet the most. His hands would have long sharp claws, but they were brittle and they would snap if he tried to attack anything. The only part of him that was sort of healthy were his teeth. Sure they were a very deep yellow, but they were the strongest part on him due to him sharpening and strengthening them on human bone.

Slowly, the door unlocked.

The Demon quickly jumped from the window ledge, which was a bad idea. Pain stabbed through his body from his hips and pelvis due to them being broken from Walter playing with him, which was also the reason to why his wings were in the state that they were.

Walter opened the door and the Demon half approached him, stopping where his chain met the floor.

"Magnus, do not test me today." his deep voice intimidated the Incubus as he came closer, "Good boy."

He unclipped the chain, which was hard to do if he wasn't watching what he was doing, the chain was fiddly to get off the metal collar. However, it prevented Magnus from getting it off. Walter then clipped a chain that was similar to a dog lead onto the collar. Immediately, the Demon pulled back, but it didn't feel like much to the Vampire due to his lack of strength.

"Do not worry, there is no playing for you today. I wish for you to scare a young maiden."

Magnus did his best to walk, but he was stuck to crawling due to this injuries. Walter closed and locked the door once they were both out.

"I got information of a beautiful maiden in a small village, not too far from here by a Reaper. Help me obtain the girl and you will be rewarded."

The demon just looked at it, if he refused to follow his command, he would be punished and played with to his grave. So he nodded his head in agreement.

"Good." Walter bent down to his level, "You can speak to me. I prefer you to say your answer."

'Location, when, after food.'

Even though Telepathy, his English wasn't that great, only managing to speak a few words.

"The food will be your reward, as a bonus, if you can kill the thorn downstairs I might throw in a few more ladies for you."

'Tempt offer, fine.'

"Good."

Walter guided Magnus down the spiralling stairs and lead him outside, where the Demon's eyes lit up. It had been the first time that he'd been out, he turned around to see how stupidly massive the castle was, it was bigger than he thought possible. The morning sun's rays were so warming to him, he felt free. However, he also felt scared. It was a giant open space, one that he suddenly wasn't used to. He pulled back on the lead, harder than what he did before, wanting to go back inside to his cramp living space. The reward of food did not motivate him enough to endure the panic that arose in his body. Yanking on the lead, Walter exerted his authority over the Demon and he forced him to go over the large intimidating bridge. The Vampire dragged Magnus all the way to the village.

At the moment, it was a calm peacefully village, none of the humans were awake. Seeing it made Magnus relax a little, but not by a great deal. There was a big church, the presence of it made the Vampire shiver and the Demon want to throw up, though he had nothing in his stomach. Most of the houses were made from wood and straw. Some of them were made from brick and stone, but they were obviously where the rich humans lived. The two of them walked down a large dirt path, that was meant for people, but it was large enough to have two horses pulling carriages on it.

They soon came to a crossroad, which they went left and they came to a stone house. It had a beautiful garden with rose bushes that were arranged neatly, acting as a border to mark the land. The house was newish, only around a few years old, clearly belonging to a landowner of sorts. A rich man lived there.

However, they could see the target from the open window. She was pretty, though she looked very stressed.

"Do I look ok mother?" she panicked.

The two of them hid underneath the windowsill, as they listen in, "You look fine, he will love your hair when he sees you."

"Are you certain? He likes some of my hair out so he can twirl it when he gets nervous."

"Oh Sara." her mother huffed, "Fine I will leave the back of it down."

"Thank you, mother."

"Sounds like she is getting ready for a wedding." Walter whispered.

'Wed-ding.'

"Yes now go and get her, kill the mother. If the father is in there, kill him too. I do not want any witnesses. But be quick, daylight will be upon us soon."

'As you wish.'

Walter clipped the lead off him and opened the door for the Demon as he crept inside.

The interior was fancy, surprisingly the walls were painted, magnolia with beautiful gold decorative paint around the edges of the walls, ceilings and door frames. A thin oak table was to his right, which had an expensive looking vase on it, with roses placed inside of it. There was an average sided mirror hanging on the wall just about the roses. His right wing knocked the vase off and it smashed onto the floor, spilling water and soaking the grey carpet. He could tell that the girls in the room to his right, had frozen because of the sound.

"What was that?" Sara's lips moved.

Before the mother could speak, Magnus opened the door growling as he entered. The room that he entered it was quite large, the fire was lit along the middle of the left wall. Two vases sat on the fireplace with a small clock in the middle. Three fancy chairs that looked exceptionally comfortable, one was placed in the far corner of the room, the second one was in the other corner and the last one was in the corner next to the door. Candles were also littered around the room, lit and it painted golden metallic holders.

The two girls looked in horror as he came closer, snapping his jaw at them. Sara grabbed a vase off the fireplace and slung it at the Demon. This caused him to fall and lose his balance, he purposely failed to get back up.

"Mother, he's hurt..." Sara came closer to him, "We have to help him."

"You do not know where he has been, I would not even touch him." despite that, the mother also came close.

With haste, he grabbed Sara's mother by the shoulders, using all of his strength he forced her to the ground, pinning her there. He kicked Sara, which caused her to tumble, snaking her head on the edge of the door, knocking her out.

"Sar-!" the mother tried to scream as Magnus drive his long fangs into her neck.

It didn't take long for his unique venom to take its effect, paralysing her limbs. However, it wouldn't be at its full pure concentration which would normally render his victim unable to move, but it would create a strange heat for them. Arousing the victim. His malnutrition made it impossible for her to gain the added bonus of his venom.

He opened his mouth, revealing an elastic tongue which almost looked like a snake's head. In truth, it was his oesophagus that was able to stretch itself out from his body to feed. It had razor-sharp front teeth to bite into the victim's oesophagus and lines of smaller teeth to act as a filter so no human red blood cells would make it into his system. If he could take them without the risk of poisoning himself, then the species would probably feed through biting. He gently opened her mouth, jabbing his 'tongue' into her mouth. She felt a slight pain at first, that went away and was replaced by a lustful feeling, due to the hormones that lined the skin of the tongue. Desperately, he drank from her, draining her dry in an instant still wanting more. Using the tongue, he forced it to go deeper into her body in search of any more oestrogen or nutrients that he had missed.

Walter jumped in through the window and pulled Magnus off the poor lady. He picked up Sara, the three of them vanished.

When they returned, he placed Magnus back on his chain in his room. The Demon painfully sat on his bottom.

"Well done." his master said, "The reward shall come to you."

He walked out and locked the door again, he teleported. Placing the young girl in his quarters.

"I would rather let him starve, his power is useless to me now I have my barrier." he said stroking the girl's face.


	3. Chapter 3- Dark Castle

The young blond groom stood at the altar, anxiously waiting for his chosen bride. Both him and the guest had been waiting there for over an hour, the sun had already reached its peak, meaning it was probably noon. Everything was exactly laid out how she wanted. There were little bunches of flowers at each end of the pew, white to symbolise their virginity and she was to be wearing a beautiful white dress. Due to tradition, he hadn't seen it yet, all he knew was the colour of the dress. The church had been cleaned beforehand, the nuns would do that before any service. He started to play with his jacket, fiddling with it nervously waiting. The stress was killing him. None of her family had arrived yet, she had her aunt coming, as well as her uncle and his wife, her mother and father too. Sadly, Leon had no living relatives, he was all alone. He lost his father when he was only fifteen, then joined the Knights of the church a year later. That's when he met Mathias, one of his best friends, who stood beside him on the biggest day of his life. Though he was sort of surprised with his appearance, he'd only lost his wife two days prior to the wedding. Leon just assumed that he was willing to be a loyal friend.

Even if the bride didn't show.

He looked down at his feet, everyone was waiting for her. Mathias could feel the tension that Leon was giving off, his whole body was almost shaking.

"She will show." His kind words were just what he needed.

The doors swung open, smacking the stone walls creating a large bounding sound.

"MY DAUGHTER IS GONE! And my wife-"

"Victor?" Leon said as he came over to him.

The people looked towards Sara's father, as he slumped over with tears falling down his eyes. The man allowed his short oak brown hair to fall from its naturally neat appearance. His white suit was drenched in thick crimson blood, staining it. His brown eyes would not stop the flow of tears no matter how hard he tired.

Leon pulled the man so they could meet eye to eye.

"What happened?" He said firmly.

"I-I came downstairs after hearing strange noises... Hillary, she lay there, motionless on the ground. He neck was bleeding, bit marks... her beautiful body covered in this foul smelling brown odour."

The people gasped at his description, they started to mutter to themselves about who could have done such a terrible act.

"There is no need to mutter, it was a wicked creature from Hell. A Vampire."

The voices got louder once Victor had said that.

"You are talking utter nonsense, Vampires do not exist. They are a fairytale." The vicar said as he came down from the altar and pushed passed the people.

"They are real, they say that one lives in the dark castle just past the hills."

They started to mutter again, "Quiet!"

"I shall go."

"Leon?" Victor said.

"Are you sure old friend?"

"Yes Mathias. I am not afraid if it will help save my beloved Sara."

"So noble of you."

"If you are going off fighting mythical beast, then we will have to strip you of your rank... Your sword." Father said.

"You can not do that to him." Victor said.

"I can and I will, it will set a bad example of the church. Having its warriors fight beasts, nonsense."

Leon pulled his blade out, handed it to the Father.

"Thank you for being so cooperative."

"That is fine Father. Mathias... are you coming with me?"

"Sorry Leon... I am needed back at home, we are getting ready for the funeral. Do not die, I wish for you to pay your respects to Elizabetha."

"Oh of course Mathias. I understand." He turned back to Victor, "I will get her back."

After a couple hours of trekking through the large thick forests, long winding roads and massive hills, he came to an open field of grass. He looked behind him as he swore he saw a bright purple light come out from the floor. His gaze went to the sky.

"Nighttime? But the sun was nowhere near close to setting."

The Dark Castle, its menacing appearance, he could feel the evil that spewed from its gates. It was ginormous, who needs that much living space? Lightning struck from the black and indigo clouds that festered in the evening sky. Leon did not like this one bit, but Sara's life was on the line. He's wasn't going to risk it.

"Why hello there." A voice said.

It forced Leon from his blind gaze at the castle, he looked to his left to see a man standing next to a small wooden cottage.

He followed the man inside, it was quite cosy. There was a little counter with neat potions, elixirs, weapons, accessories and armours on the shelves. Very simple table and chairs sat in the right end of the room. He could clearly see that there was another room behind the counter.

"Who are you?" Leon politely asked.

He gave a sigh, "Are you the poor soul who's loved the one has been kidnapped?"

"Yes! How did you-?"

"I saw it. Walter carrying a young maiden, with his 'pet' closely by his side."

"Pet?"

"Oh yes, I have only heard stories about him. He is a Demon who Walter likes to have fun with."

"Fun?"

He sighed again, "Disgusting lovemaking."

"Uhh..." Leon revolted, "I did not even know two men could take part in such unspeakable acts."

"Though the Demon does not consent to it."

"Oh..." Leon moved his eyes awkwardly around the room.

"...Anyway, my name is Rinaldo Gandolfi."

"I am Leon Belmont." He snapped to attention.

"By any chance would you be, Baron Leon Belmont?"

"I'm not a Baron now, I have my title up when I left. Call me Leon."

"Yes Lord Belmont."

"Drop the Lord please, call me Leon, we are equal now."

"Very well. In my youth, I would hunt those foul creatures."

"You used to kill Vampires?" Leon's eyes widened.

"Yes."

"What made you stop?"

"Old age. You wish to stop Walter?"

"If that is who I must defeat, I have to get Sara back.

"You are mad, but I admire your courage."

"Who is this Walter?"

"Walter Bernhard, he's the lord of that castle. Right now he's playing his favourite game with you."

"Oh and where do you fit in all of this."

"It seems that eternal life has gotten boring for him, driven him mad over the years, he has done some awful things. I help the hunters who come here, apparently, that makes the game more fun to him."

"I see, can, you give me some advice?"

"For starters, you will need a weapon."

"Church took my sword, they didn't agree with my decision."

"They never agree on anything. Here take this."

He placed a brown whip on the counter. Leon took it with a confused look on his face.

"It's a whip made of Alchemy." Rinaldo proudly stated, "It should be able to defeat most of the creatures in that castle. Even though it is not complete."

"Not complete? What do I need to do to make it complete?"

"I'd rather not say. Take this as well."

He placed a white gauntlet on the counter, "It will help you defend against enemy attacks. I have also cast a spell upon it so you can absorb the enemy attacks, it will also allow you to use magical relics."

"Magical, relics?"

"Yes, those who are experienced enough with magic can use it. I have cast a spell so you can use it as well."

"Thank you."

"You will not be able to defend against Mind abilities. So stay away from the black winged Demon with the chain collar."

"Mind abilities?"

"It's a magical element, one of many. Gives the user psychic abilities. You do not want to mess with one of them."

Leon looked confused as he picked up the gauntlet, "Okay, do not touch the pet."

"Also drink this."

"This is a lot of things you are giving me, how will I be able to repay you?"

"By killing him." He said bluntly, "This is a powerful potion that I brewed up. It will give you the power of Perception a very useful ability, you will be able to sense the monsters and evil spirits before they even strike. This should also pass down to any children that you may have... The one downside."

"What is that?" He said picking the bottle up.

"By drinking it, you become what is known as Magically Enchanted human, this particularly potion contains Perception, which is a Holy or a Light power. Your descendants may also gain different benefits from the potion... It will also purify your blood, making you a target of Vampires. Since pure-blooded humans taste the sweetest to them."

Leon was speechless, if he drunk that potion he would gain a magical power that would be passed on to his kin, but they may gain other abilities too.

"A target though?"

"Yes. The only side effect of drinking a potion like that."

"Will this help me save Sara?"

"Well, it will make you harder to kill."

That's all Leon needed to hear, he flicked the cork lid off with his thumb and drank it. The taste was not pleasant. Immediately, he started to feel the effects of it, causing him to fall down to the ground. He could sense every monster in the area, including the ones that were in the castle. It was overwhelming.

"You will get used to that." He said.

Leon pulled himself up, he was struggling to catch his breath, "Thank, you Rinaldo."

"I'm glad I could be of assistance. You know he's playing with you."

"Playing?" Leon tried to breathe through what he was feeling.

Rinaldo came out from behind his counter and sat Leon down on one of the chairs. He moved one closer and sat.

"Your lady is the mouse, acting as the bate and you're the cat."

"What a stupid, game to play... With a young girl's life."

"I know, take a few moments."

Leon took far to many moments, he couldn't get over how incredible it felt to have a magical ability, to feel different to every other man in the world. He could 'feel' all of the monster's dark presence. Their location was easier for him to detect thanks to this new power. He felt ready to take on the hordes of the castle.

"Return if you are in need of anything Leon."

"Rinaldo? What was that strange light I saw?"

"A barrier I just placed up, preventing any monsters from attacking me, no monster can get in."

"Was that up before Walter kidnapped Sara?"

He gave a deeper sigh, "I see what you are saying. The barrier was designed to keep Walter from getting to the villages, but about every month the spell used to create it would wear out and vanish. He would wait until then."

"I see, but if you did not have it up, then this game of his would happen much more frequently."

"Exactly. I'm not a witch or Sorcerer."

The blond male arose from his seat, "Thank you Rinaldo. Your kindness will not go unnoticed."

Leon walked over to the door, gave a smile before exiting.

The air had grown colder, the breeze was stronger it seemed darker then it did before he entered. He started to strut towards the castle, he stepped upon its large bridge, took a deep breath and entered.

The castle's interior was stunning, Leon had to take a moment to look at all of it. Similarly, it reminded him of a church, with its beautiful stain glass windows and amazing architecture. The room that he was in was large with a fountain in the middle of the room. Five pedestals, which he didn't understand what they were for. Behind them were a set of stairs that lead to a magically sealed door, probably where Walter was keeping Sara. He looked behind him to see another large oak door behind him, this one did not possess a seal upon it. He opened the door and walked down the large corridor. He came to a large room that had a massive raised platform, he walked up the stairs to see, five circles on the ground and a shadowy figure with glowing crimson eyes, standing in the middle of the circles.

Leon was quick to brandish his whip, "Oh please that weapon will do nothing to me."

The shadows began to blow away like smoke in a light breeze, "I am Cain."

He gave Leon a grin, revealing his large fangs. The Demon toward over Leon, at his impressive 6'11," he made Leon look like a Dwarf in comparison. His skin was slightly darker than the average person, tinted grey skin. He flicked his long slightly curly black locks behind his pointed ears. His deep brown horns looked strong and sharp, the same with his long claws. He wore nothing to cover his chest, revealing his buff muscles. Large dark ash coloured wings sprouted from his back when he stretched them out fully, they were twice his body length. His bottom hard was covered with a simple pair of black trousers. His long thick tail was the same colour as his wings, with a flaming end that matched the colours of a real fire, only it was different shades of purples, pinks and blues.

Leon was shocked to see one of the sons of Adam and Eve in the Dark Castle. It proved that the teachings of the Bible were true.

"Cain? What are you doing in a place like this?"

"Well, this castle sits on a Hell Gate for starters. Plus Luci asked me to give you a helping hand with your quest." He spoke in quite a posh accent.

"The Devil himself asked that of you?"

"Yes..." he sighed and as he did his wings flopped down, touching the floor.

He reinfected his lungs and they rose back up, "As Lucifer's left hand he has seen into the future and decided that I will help. Majority of the Demons living in this area of Hell are kind of waiting for Walter's demise."

Leon's yes sudden widened to that new, "How bad is this Vampire?"

"Oh very bad, he has burnt countless villages, raped thousands of young girls, kidnapped and terrorised so many people over his 8000-year truant reign. Not to mention how he treats the Demons that he keeps in his 'care.' He keeps one in a tower, the room is infested with the risk of disease, not to mention the one thousand and five hundred-year-old bodies, urine and faeces that have never been cleaned in. Keep in mind that his pet is only one thousand."

He was horrified, he couldn't even think to imagine how bad it would be to live in a room like that, "Wait, who was in there beforehand?"

"His parents."

"What?"

"Oh yes the bodies of his parents are in there, he had to kill the both of them to stay alive because Walter forgot to feed them for two hundred years."

"Why...? How could someone be that sick in the head?"

"That what being immortal can do to someone, you gain power and then go crazy because of how much the person has seen. His plans were pretty self-explanatory. He wanted a weapon, a guardian Demon to protect him, however, none of his servants wanted to risk their life for him. So he placed a Succubus and an Incubus in a room together and waited until there were signs of a baby."

"What makes him so special though?"

"Well most of his kind have human DNA bred into them, nower days they naturally breed with humans. But the pet had pure Demonic blood, which is something the Incubi have not had for a long time. So he is the most powerful of their race."

"Oh..."

"Enough about that, he's locked in a tower. You are safe from him."

"If you say so."

"Let's get down to business, each one of stones will warp you to a different location in the castle. At the end of the area, there will be a monster waiting to kill you." He sounded somewhat happy about that some how, "Once all of them have been defeated, the seal on the door will break. It's made up of a combination of their blood, so they are sort of bound to the seal, their life keeps it stable. There is the House of Sacred Remains, the Garden, Ghostly Theater, the Dark Palace of waterfalls and then there's the Labs."

"And if I destroy all the monsters, I can free Sara?"

"Yes."

"No tricks?"

"The only trick is how to beat them, I'm not going to help you there, Luci said that would be meddling too much."

"Meddling?"

"Technically I'm never supposed to appear to you, however, the Timeline of this world is going to change."

"Timeline?"

"Well it already has...it's just the Guardians changing events for the greater good. Only Greater Demons and Angels are aware of the shift though."

"Should you be telling me all of this?"

"No, but screw them!" He flung his hands up into the air, "You best get going if you wish to save Sara."

He vanished with a shadow moving at lightning speeds. Leon was left to think which monster he wanted to face first, it would have been nice for Cain to have said which lair he was going to be jumping his way into.


	4. Chapter 4- Queen and the assassin

Sara's eyes slowly opened, she found herself staring at a statue of a robed lady on the ceiling. Jumping her body up she rose up from her deep slumber. She rubbed her eyes, checking of what she just saw was real. Taking another look at it, she could see that the lady was reaching out to a robed man across some water. She didn't understand what it meant or if it meant anything at all. It probably didn't, but it was still beautiful to look at. Her hands moved from her lap to the soft sheets. She didn't realise that she was sitting on a bed. It was a queen sized bed with expensive oak frames. The pillows were extremely fluffy and they looked really comfortable. The mattress that she sat on was just as comfortable as what the pillows looked like. However, she was unfamiliar with her surroundings. The last thing she remembers was being attacked by a filth covered winged beast. The room that she was in was high class, the walls were painted a red colour, but it looked more like a brown at first glance. The robed ladies were all around the room, there was one in each corner of the room. The curtains were dark brown and long, touching the floor with ease. She allowed herself to be lost to the gorgeous art that was on the ceiling.

"Ah, I see that you are awake." A deep voice said.

The sudden sound made her jump, her head snapped to where it came from, "W-Who are you?" Fear was in her voice.

"I am Walter. A Vampire, I have brought you here, a Reaper suggested you for a little game." He said sadistically.

Poor Sara didn't understand what he was talking about, all she knew was he had kidnapped her...and he was Vampire. Her heart sank in her realisation. Vampires are mythical creatures that her mother told her stories about to prevent her from going outside at night, giving her mythical excuses so she would not go out. She had been told that Vampires were nightwalkers, unable to go out during the day, otherwise, they would evaporate. They would bite a person and then lick the blood out of them and they could fly. She wasn't sure how much of that was true, but he definitely had fangs, she could see them. The white teeth were just barely poking out from his top lip. But do they retract? That was another story that her mother had told here. If Vampires were real, then what else might be too?

"What name do you go by my lady?"

"Sara." She placed her hands back on his lap, "What g-game is it?" She was too afraid to say that.

"A game with your husband-to-be, we're going to see how long it takes him to come for you."

"How long does he have!?" She sounded distressed.

"Until I get bored and take a bite out of you."

She gulped, "H-how long is that?"

"Around five hours-ish. If you survive, then the game isn't quite over."

"What do you mean?"

"He might be able to save you if a Purification spell is cast on you."

"How long would I have?"

"That really depends on the strength of the person's will, but it should take from anywhere between one to three hours."

"That is not long..."

Suddenly, Walter was on the bed next to Sara. He placed his hands over her shoulders, she immediately got up.

"You are the prettiest lady who I have ever laid my eyes upon. I hope I can win this game, then you can be my Queen."

"What!? No, I am Leon's. I wish to spend my life with him."

"So that's the little church boy's name, Leon... I shall engrave that into his body. It will read, 'You failed to save me Leon, you were too late."

"No!" Sara screamed as her body backed itself against the wall.

Walter appeared in front of her, she could feel the cold radiating off his body. He got closer, so she could feel his freezing breath on his neck.

"You will be mine." He whispered in her ear.

She froze, her body refused to move. Fear prevented her from moving, she didn't know what he might do. Will he bite her neck that which was filled with the juicy blood which he desired. Or maybe something worse. He cuffed his faint hand around her cheekbones, forcing her to look directly into his eyes. They began to glow a strange purple colour and her body went limp. He grabbed her gently placing her on the bed.

"I will make you my Queen."

"I will be your Queen." Her monotone voice was like music to him.

He pulled her dress over head, revealing her tight corset. He ran his hands down her frame and let them stay on her hips, "I will claim you."

"Yes my love, Leon means nothing to me."

"That is what I like to hear."

"Oh the poor girl." A voice said.

"How could he do this to such a pure child?"

"I'm not sure, it's disgraceful!" The first one said.

Sara's eyes shot open, she saw to of the same creature that attacked her, only they were both women. One has long ginger, almost red hair. Her eyes were a browny red colour, a murky mess of beauty. She wore a black corset and a tong. She smiled as she placed her long claws over Sara's face and her large black and red wings flapped gently.

"I am Veronica my child, this here is Rose."

"Hello my dear."

Rose had gorgeous deep brown hair, it was long, making her look like Rapunzel. Her eyes matched her hair, but they were a few shades darker. She wore similar clothing to her friend. Though her wings were a grey colour with a light brown wing membrane.

"Why am I unfortunate?" Sara asked.

"You belong to Walter now."

Sara was shocked, belonged to that creature, "How?"

"You made consensual love." Rose said.

"No! But Leon!"

"Ah, he did that to you, tricky bugger."

"What!?"

"He put you under his spell."

That fact didn't help Sara's panic, she wanted to go home. She could have been happily married off with the man of her dreams. Everything was perfect, Leon and her mother decorated the church the night before the wedding. Perfect. That's how she wanted it, Leon always made her happy.

Tears began to fall from her eyes, she tried to catch them using her hand.

"Oh don't cry love. It will be alright." Rose said.

"No it won't, they are mates now, if Walter is killed she will ki-"

"Hush, you will just upset the poor girl."

"I guess she has had enough bad news today."

Sara allowed herself to fall into the Succubus' arms, the Demon wrapped her wings around the girl as if they were a giant blanket.

"I have a friend who might be seeing your beloved soon." Rose said as her wings flicked from being around Sara's body.

"Really, he is here?"

"Yes, I'm sure he's coming to rescue you. Well I hope it's him, I do smell the scent of a new man in castle."

"Leon."

Her heart was filled with joy, she knew it had to be him.

"Though he has a lot of work to get through."

"Work?"

"Oh yes, he has to defeat him." Veronica said.

"Who is he?"

"You still kicking down here!?" Walter yelled as the caves replied with his own voice.

The Alpha Vampire found himself in the prison cells of the Dark Palace Of Waterfalls. The area was practically pitch black, not a problem for a Vampire. A pair of crimson red eyes shone in the distance, followed by the suddenly low pitched growl.

"Come here to mock me?"

"No Joachim. Well, I sense a powerful dark force, it came from the warped to the five trials. Any idea?"

Joachim moved out from the shadows and into the only light that was in the room, the centre.

"Why would I, give you any answer?"

Walter sighed, "Just asking your advice, old friend."

Joachim gave out a massive laugh, "You locked me up down here! It was you who turned me! And it was you who wanted me!"

Walter gave a slight chuckle, "That is not true."

"Do I mean nothing to you? You have pushed me away and then decided to rape me countless times, on and do not forget your pet Incubus, who you rape most nights. I've seen him, Walter. He was skinny before I was locked down here, that was over five hundred years ago."

"I think you are overreacting."

"Face it Walter, you are a psychopathically mental nut job, who obviously is the most abusive person I have ever met, do not even get me started about your little secret."

"What secret?"

"A homosexual Alpha Vampire."

Walter hissed at Joachim's words. He vanished and appeared behind the younger Vampire, ferociously chomping on his throat with his sharp razor-like fangs. He threw Joachim to the ground in disgust.

"So are you."

Joachim turned to face Walter, but he was afraid to raise back up to this feet.

"That's a weak come back, you only turned me at that dinner party, so you would have another person to make love with besides your pet... That's all he's ever known." He said boldly

"I've taken him out."

"Yeah to fetch you newest 'mouse!' By the way who told you about that." He said.

"A blond-haired Reaper came to me."

"Reaper."

"She said that there was a maiden who was due to be wed in the village near this castle. I'm asking you to play with the girl."

"And you just smiled and said ye- Wait, did you say that the Reaper was a female?"

"Yes."

"We do not have female Reapers, all ours are male."

"What makes you say that?" His tone was sharp.

"Well, because our Angel of Death is male all the Reapers which he creates are the same gender. They can only make the same gender as what they are."

Reality hit Walter, "So where did that Reaper come from?"

"Not from our world... I think this is a trap Walter."

"No?"

"You want to know who was in the warp room?"

"Of course."

"Cain."

Walter was shocked, he stumbled back a little, "How? He's trapped in hell."

"You opened a gate in one room of the castle, remember."

"Yes but that was so that, the master of the castle would be bound to its fate and vice versa."

"If you die so does the castle, yes. However, it has to be open all the time, so..."

"Cain, the left hand of Lucifer... is in Castlevania."

Walter was really getting scared now, considering that Cain had the ability to kill him without even thinking about it. His barrier only defends him from physical blows and strong magical attacks. However, Cain's strength is almost equal to Lucifer himself, a few shadowy blasts from him and he'd be done for.

"How do we defeat Cain?"

"We don't, he's your problem. Oh and I thought you were not afraid of a little Demon." He said as he rose to his feet and started to walk back to the shadows.

Walter gritted his teeth, and sucked up some of his pride, "Joachim, what's going to happen!? You can see the shadows of the future. Glimpses. Take a look for me."

Joachim looked over his bloodied shoulder, "After everything you have done...I'd rather stab myself with a blade or allow myself to starve. In fact, when that 'cat' comes, I'm gone. Great plan."

The younger Vampire walked away, "Joachim... I still, love you."

Joachim sighed, "Take my advice and give the girl back to him. A dastardly creature is hunting you."

Walter looked down at the ground for a moment, "I might have made her my new Queen."

"What!?" Joachim quickly swung his whole body around, "...You are as good as dead now Walter."

"Why? Who is hunting me?"

"A Death Bringer."

"...is that a real thing?"

"YES! They are highly dangerous."

"What is it? And how do you know about it?"

"They have the power Sudden Death, the ability to kill someone with a click of their fingers. Not to mention that they can infect a person with a bunch of deadly diseases to make sure the person is dead. Think of them as Azreal's assassin's."

"Isn't that just a Reaper?"

"No! You idiot, a Reaper has to wait until a person dies naturally to take their soul. Death Bringers can just kill you. It could do it right now if it wanted to, but it's choosing a more passive approach."

"The boy!"

"Exactly!"

"I'll kill him."

"No... I give up. Fine, kill the boy. See what good that does."

"I will then, thank you for your advice." He said as he vanished.


	5. Chapter 5 House of Sacred Remains

F1

He stared at the five warp areas for a moment. A choice of which monster to fight, he couldn't decide. However, Sara was counting on him to get to her as quickly as he could. This was his first time fighting monsters, he wasn't afraid of them. He was afraid of failing and not being able to rescue his beloved Sara. It would help if there were labels on the stones to tell him where they went. Anything, so he wasn't going in there blind. Sadly, he was out of luck.

Strangely, there was a map laying on the fourth platform from the door of which he entered. He picked up the map, 'House of Sacred Remains,' it read.

Leon stared at the map for a few moments, when he looked up he was in a completely different area. He didn't notice, but he was standing on the wrap platform when he picked the map up. However, the area which he was in was stunning to his eyes. He standing on what looked like the top of where two staircases would be. A massive statue was perfectly placed in the centre of the room. The railings for the stairs were handcrafted works of art, made of mahogany, but varnished to perfection. He looked behind him to see a giant round stained glass window that he could barely see out of. All of the intricate colour blending into one another, creating a natural magical beauty of the window. He couldn't stop looking at this one window. There were no pictures that told a story, like on a church window. But the pattern is what left Leon gazing into the window's beauty for a few moments.

He slowly began to walk down the steps, they were made from ivory. Well, they had ivory over the top of the wood. Each step had recently been brushed off all the dirt like Walter was expecting to meet a very special friend of his. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, an enemy clobbered him.

It was a skeleton, a real sentient human skeleton. It had a wooden club in its right hand, two more came into Leon's view. He unwrapped the whip from his belt and gave all three of this a spinning combo. Watching them all fall to pieces felt so satisfying to him. The whip had such an incredible feel to it, the whip recognised what Leon wished of it and it wanted to help him, or he was thinking too much had he need to get back to save Sara.

He quietly opened the door, trying not to arouse any suspicion that there was a human running around the castle trying to save his bride-to-be. When the door opened, he was blown away again. The corridor was long, he couldn't even see the end of it because it was too dark. It was a long thin corridor with light coming from more gorgeous looking stain glass windows. There wasn't much light that managed to make its way through the window, but it was enough for him to see more than two feet in front of him. He started to jog across the long corridor, but the darkness at the end was beginning to scare him a little. He wasn't sure of what enemies might be lurking in the darkness, it might be that Demon who Rinaldo strictly warned him to stay away from. He didn't really explain why maybe he could ask if he manages to kill the monster it the area. Upon getting near to the end of the never-ending corridor, more skeletons appeared. Along with floating blue skulls, he blazed through them with ease. The whip's power was truest not to be messed with.

Suddenly, giant thick iron bars rose up from the floor where the door was when he entered the next room. A small horde of monstered appeared shortly after. Naturally, Leon assumed that he needed to kill all the monsters so he could progress. He was in what seemed like a chapel, but to see one where there was so much dark aura, he was honestly shocked. The monsters that appeared were Ghouls that threw up all over the green centre rug. A few whips and they were quickly returned back to the soil of which they emerged from.

After a few more rooms, he found a large stone button, he guessed he had to jump on it. When he did just that, he felt a slight tremor.

"Did I do something? Is this all part of Walter's test so I can see Sara?"

He could only guess and assume at this point. He came out from the room and went back the way that he came. Trekking down the opposite path to find the next stone button. He did the same and there was the tremor.

"What is happening? How many of these things are there?"

He exited again, retiring back the way that he came again. This time he went down a completely separate route. He came to a room that was like a maze, he stepped on the floor and nearly got himself vapourised by an indescribable black and red circle that was on the ground. He attempted progressing again, the same thing happened. It was following his movements. He decided to make a run for it. Dashing across the floor, quickly making it through the bizarre maze, making sure that the thing on the floor did not reach him. The whole house felt like a maze to him.

He opened that door to find a room that had spikes coming up from the ground, he wasn't going to catch his breath. He made another run for it, going as fast as any human could go, making it to the door without getting impaled by a spike.

Finally, he found the last stone switch, he jumped on it and the room rumoured again. Though time, he heard the sound of a door unlocking. He wasn't sure what he did but he hoped that he opened the monster's lair up. Or so he thought.

He returned back the way that he came, but he went down the middle path, he came to another room. This one was different. The only door that he could possibly progress thought was locked. Leon looked around for a moment and saw a press switch on the ground, running over to it. he stepped on it, several bars came out from the wall and an electrical gate appeared. Moving off the switch, he jumped into the air and hooked onto the bar using his whip. he flicked himself onto the next one and then the next, but missed the third one. Falling back down, he then tried again. using his weight to press the switch down and having another attempt. It took him two more tries before finally clearing the electric wall.

BF1

He travelled down a set of steps to the basement, he didn't think there would be one. He thought the monster would just be at the end of the area, but there was more to the castle than he thought.

This new area that he was in felt completely different from where he was beforehand. For starters, it was eerier than the upper level. The light had almost completely gone, making Leon feel unease.

He couldn't see the enemies.

Which was a major problem.

He could hear them but couldn't see them, still, he pushed on. Coming into one room that had lasers. There was a clear path which he could walk on, but only certain areas were blocked by the laser. He took a deep breath and made a quick run for it, dodging the first laser, the second and the third knocked him back. The impact forced him spiralling back, he had to be more careful. Taking another breath he went, taking his time so he would succeed with passing the next two. He did it, strangely he wasn't too badly hurt from the laser hitting him.

He dashed down the next few corridors and doors until he heard a large roar. Suddenly, he was attacked by a large creature.

An Executioner.

The enemy started to violently charge at him, he jumped out of the way. Dodging round to the creature's back, to prevent him from noticing the blows. Leon continued to use the same method until it sank to the ground. He was out of breath, but it was dead.

He came to a door with a distinctive skill and crossbones on it with a blood red background. Now he was there, he did not want to open the door. But he had too.

For Sara!

Leon entered the room, his senses were giving off a dark aura, something was not right. As he walked through, the room felt very warm. He entered further into the room, soon his feet were standing on a soft and sort of squishy surface. The area almost looked like the inside of someone's body. The floor was a pinky colour, the floor overlapped on itself giving the illusion that he was standing on muscle. The walls had the same effect, only they were darker. There were four holes in the ground, Leon didn't know what they were for. Probably so the monster could drag him down into the unseen pit below, ending his life.

"Why hello there human." A voice said.

"What? Who are you?"

"I am Parasite. What name do you go by?"

"Leon."

"So the human goes by the name of Leon..."

Parasite revealed itself. Flying out from the right hole in front of Leon. Its body was huge and disgusting. Looking like a giant tapeworm, just a more fleshy colour. Its body was very veiny, they were thick dull red almost a brown and horrible to look at. It had what looked like feelers on its checks, also they were long and gross. It was just not very nice to look at. But Leon was more interested as to how it was flying, let alone how it could talk.

It landed, looking at him in a similar fashion to a snake, its tail was tucked behind its body.

"So how does a human such as yourself like my filthy Great Shrine?" Strangely enough, it sounded female.

"Well, it certainly is unique. Very different to what I was looking at outside the door."

"Oh I know, isn't it wonderful, beyond that door is an insult to my very being. A puppy could have made those rooms quite easily. This!" It tipped its head back, "Is art." The head returned back to looking at Leon.

"I am impressed with your work."

"I'm glad that you are. Sadly it will be the last thing you will ever see!"

Quickly, Parasite jumped back into the hole which she floated out of. Bizarre eyelike appendages appeared from each of the holes. With haste, Leon chucked holy water down into each one of the hole. Parasite screamed as he did this, causing her to come out from one of the holes. He took this opportunity to strike the body. He leapt up into the air, whipping her several times before she flicked him back with her tail. He fell face first onto the floor, but he recovered from it. She was still out of the hole, he attempted the tactic again. However, she quickly blew a mass amount of fire at him because she was constantly moving, her accuracy wasn't that great, so it only just skimmed him. But he wasn't going to bring that down to luck, next time she fires that again, she might not miss.

Once again, he leapt up again, but he attacked her blind side. The tail, she screamed in the pain. Pulling out another bottle of holy water, he threw it at her exposed body. She screamed again, returning back to her hole. Only this time, a group of Soulless appeared around him. 'She must have called them here.' He thought.

He made quick work of them and she returned. He made sure that she would not get away. Flicking his whip at her, he managed to grab onto her feelers and launch himself onto her back. Flying wildly, desperately trying to get him off. She even tried smacking herself into the walls to get him off but to no avail. He jabbed a dagger into her, she yelped and she gave a quick sharp flick of her tail. Driving him into the wall again. But the dagger was left in her body. More Soulless arrived as she howled for them, Leon made quick work of them. She was only delaying the real battle. Fire touched the field again, heating up the floor around him. She continued to do this, wanting to cook Leon with the muscle that was there. He didn't have long to try his idea, she was going crazy with that fire breath of hers. He used the whip to hook onto her feelers, he used every ounce of strength that he had to send her body flying on to the floor. Now she was grounded, he didn't have long. He jumped as high as he could, performed a diving jump kick onto the dagger. Forcing it further into her body than what it was originally. The whole dagger went in, including the hilt, piecing her hearts. Her screams could have been heard from the entrance to the castle. She leapt into the air, started to fly uncontrollably as she started to catch fire and perished.

He had done it.

The first monster out of five had been defeated. Though a strange blue orb appeared. Her remains gathered together to create it. He touched it and it vanished, though he felt more powerful. Soon after a portal appeared. He was not sure where it leads too, but he went through it any say.

He reappeared outside of Rinaldo's cottage, he didn't understand why he returned back, but he entered the cottage.

The sound of Potts and glass bottles moving filled the air as Rinaldo was busy sorting himself out.

"Hello?"

The older man turned around, "Oh Leon. How are you?"

"Good, the first monster has been defeated."

"I am pleased to hear of your victory. You are not injured are you?"

"I do not think so." He said checking himself over.

He noticed a burn on his right arm where Parasite's fire had skimmed him. Rinaldo forced the young man to sit at the table. He reached for a potion off the shelf and poured it into the wound. It stung.

Leon's eyes clenched shut as he fought through the pain, it was over quick. Rinaldo bandaged it up.

"Here, drink this. It will take the pain away and speed up your recovery."

He handed Leon a green potion and he gulped it down in one go, immediately feeling its effects.

"Was that a potion made of Alchemy?" Leon asked.

"Yes, however, if Mathias had made that potion, it would have healed you completely."

"You know Lord Conquest?"

"Why yes, his family had a book full of spells and such, but it's was original passes down orally."

"I did not know he was an alchemist?"

"Few people do. Are you aware of his servant."

"Cornelius Fernandez? Yes, I've only met him once. He was at Mathias and Elizabetha's wedding."

"He's a Sorcerer."

"What?"

"A very powerful one too, no one can compare to the level of power that he has, he's over a thousand years old."

"No way."

"He might even be older than Walter."

"How did Mathias meet him?"

"That I am unsure about. But I thought you might have wanted to know about Mathias."

"Thank you Rinaldo. Should I pay for those potions?"

"Have them on the house. But there will be no more freebies. In less, you are dying and are on my door bleeding."

Leon gave a chuckle at the old man's remark.

One monster down, one step closer to getting Sara back.


	6. Chapter 6- A Half Truth

Walter began to pace back and forth in his throne room. Joachim's words hit him quite hard. There was someone or something coming for him. It explained the far too much. The female Reaper who came to him a few days prior to all of the events that had happened. He didn't understand how Joachim knew all of what he had said. A Death Bringer...

Why was a Supernatural Assassin after him? Was it something that he did? It couldn't have been his actions, they were justified. He rules the castle with an iron fist because some of the monsters didn't accept that a Vampire could lead them. He played his games to satisfy his need for blood and to make the hunt more interesting. He created Magnus so he had powerful protection. In the beginning, that Incubus would proudly stand beside him. Keeping him safe, he didn't need to worry about anybody who might oppose him. But his psychic magic grew too much, Walter began to fear that he might be the next person to get his head blown off by that power. Then he turned Joachim. Magnus became jealous of their relationship and tried to attack Walter's new lover. As a punishment his master locked him in the tower and that's just where he stayed.

But Joachim said that he needed to change his ways, freeing the girl for a start. However, he couldn't just let the new girl go. He felt bound to her, he hoped that she felt the same way.

An idea came to him, he exited the room using his mist powers, reappearing in front of the door to Magnus. He unlocked it, to see the Demon curled up fast asleep. He completely forgot that he promised Magnus a reward for helping him. Kissing to get his attention, similar to a cat, Magnus' eyes opened up. He looked at his master as he sat down on the clean part of the floor. Cautiously, Magnus came over to him and sat by his side. Walter summoned a bowl of water and placed it down on the ground. The Demon immediately drank from it.

"How would you like to come downstairs with me?"

 _'Offer a place by side?'_

"Yes. Be my guardian Incubus once again."

 _'No longer needed, barrier.'_

"I feel like that hunter is going to do something crafty."

 _'Fine.'_

"Thank you."

He unhooked the chain from his collar and the Demon tried to walk beside Walter, but tumbled back down to the ground. Walter picked him up and vanished back to his throne room.

He placed Magnus near his feet as he sat down on his thrown.

"I feel more at home."

"That is not the way of change, Walter."

"Who goes there?"

Immediately, Walter started to look around for the source of that mysterious voice.

But no one was around. He scanned the environment with his eyes but there was no one around. He looked up and down, left to right but no one was to be seen. Just Magnus, who yawned ready for another nap.

"One selfless act will not save your life."

Once again, Walter looked around the area, he still saw nothing. He passed it off again.

"I must be hearing things." He gave a slight chuckle.

"Or your guilty conscious is getting to you."

"Who are YOU!?"

"A dragon."

Finally, the mysterious man appeared. He was very tall touching 6'7" to the Vampire's guess. His face looked very young, only around his early twenties. His hair was long, but some parts of it were cut to different lengths, giving it a spiky look. It easily touched the floor, with it looking very soft and well kept, its colouration was bright navy. His eyes were swirling with different shades of blue, it was hard for Walter to keep his concentration on anything else. He was also lost in them because they looked similar to a cat's. Snow white wings sprouted from his back, they were nearly three times the length of his height. Large, beautiful and deadly. The wing membrane was a very light icy blue. He wore nothing on his top half, revealing his muscly chest and recent scaring. His bottom half was covered by a simple pair of black trousers. A long paper whitetail came from his back end, of curled around him like a blanket. The underside of it was a darker blue but it was still lighter than the sky. It had small spikes on it that were an ocean blue. The end of his tail was a brightly proud lit flame, that had a mixture of blues, purples and pinks in it. The dragon gave a growl and when he did, strange glowing blue spiral markings appeared; under his eyes, checks, chest, wings, arms, hands and his tail. So of the markings were thicker than others, but they only lasted for a few seconds.

"Who are you?"

Magnus woke up, rubbing his eyes as he looked at the dragon.

"I am Chrono." He bowed, "In the other Timeline, I was known as Galamoth."

Walter looked at Chrono with confusion written across his face. Another Timeline? What could he possibly be going on about?

"I see your confusion." He looked down to Magnus, "Though you should have felt the shift."

"That I did," Magnus spoke.

Walter was shocked, he'd known the Incubus for two thousand years, not once was had he heard him speak a signal word.

"Yes he talks, the Death Bringer specifically told him not to speak."

"What are you going on about?"

Chrono smiled, "This world has been 'rebooted.' Events did not happen the way they were supposed to. You did not exist in the old Timeline, nor in an alternate reality."

"Ok, so how am I here now?"

"This world created you, Fate gave birth to you so this world would differ from the first world."

"... Okay. But why change it?"

"'It's far too complex to understand."

"Ok then, what are you doing here?"

"To apologise."

"To who?"

He bent down to Magnus, "Originally, I did not see the abuse being so bad and for that, I am truly sorry, your new life will get better for you. The world is changing for the better."

Magnus nodded, "I understand, I do not remember much from the crossover, but I do remember my death."

"Not a nice event to hold on to. Would you like me to replace it?"

Magnus smiled, "Leave it, though I would like to be healed if that is alright with you?"

Chrono sighed, "I could, but it might mess with future events. We have meddled enough."

"So you will not heal me?"

"You will see."

"But how will I survive once he's dead?"

"We can give you supplies when it is necessary. Food will magically appear to you."

"Thank you."

"I wish I could do more."

"You have done enough Gally, I saw your marks, they were not as bright as they should be. Go rest, let your Guardians watch over for you."

He gave a nod.

"Wait, the Death Bringer. Will it come for me?"

"You were destined to die on this day Walter, your destiny is unable to be changed. Leon Belmont will kill you." He said vanishing away.

The room was silent for quite a while, Magnus gave another yawn. Walter turned slowly to his right he gave a mighty hiss and a growl, so loud that his enemy could have heard it. He grabbed Magnus by the scruff of his neck and vanished back up to the filth covered room.

He chucked the Demon back in, landing right in the centre of all the muck. He skidded in it a bit and sat up to face his master.

"You will regret doing this!" Magnus said.

"Rebellious are we?"

He gasped, realising what he just said.

"Well, you can share the same fate as Joachim, hiding the fact that you could talk."

"Walter, Demons can learn languages within days, speak it in a few weeks, write it in months of learning it. I was going to pick English up eventually."

Walter angrily strutted over to the Demon, snapping the chain back on him and giving him a hard slap.

"I practically raised you, this is how you repay all of my wasted time!"

"You locked me up here, in my own filth, with rotting bodies and blood. Not to mention, the bodies of my parents! Who you forced me to kill just so I could survive. I should mind blast you right now." He threatened.

Walter used all of his strength to kick Magnus in the gut, he smashed against the wall.

He heard a loud snapping sound as he landed back into the filth. Walter stormed out of the room and locked it. The Demon tried to get back up, but he couldn't, his legs refused to work. He couldn't walk, he used all of his strength to pull himself out of the muck and behind the curtain. He lay there, pain coursed throughout his body, it wasn't going to stop. He tried to fall asleep.

Walter appeared in the room where he was keeping Sara. She backed herself against the wall when he snuck in on here. Her breathing began to increase as he slowly came towards her. His fangs came out from the roof of his mouth. He let out a sharp long hiss, revealing his exposed fangs. Her fingers were clawing at the wall, wanting to get further away, but there was nowhere else she could possibly go. He started to tease her fear be moving as slow as he could, one baby step at a time. He smiled as her panic began to increase and she started to hyperventilate.

Eventually, he got so close to her that his freezing breath was down her throat. She tried to calm herself down, but it was a failed attempt. With one quick movement, he drove his long powerful fangs into her young neck. The crimson red blood that had been teasing him for too long gently trickled down his fingertips onto the back of his hand and onto the carpet. Staining it. He clenched onto her throat as he bit down harder, smacking her body against the wall. He pulled his fangs out and jabbed them back onto her like he was trying to rip part of her throat out.

 _'You still need that girl.'_

The sudden sound of a strange voice in his head made him stop. The girl's body flopped to the floor, she was still breathing.

"Okay, Who are you?"

 _'The one.'_

"..."

The voice gave a chuckle, _'I have been watching you for quite some time. I must say you are a terrible person.'_

"What? You are not the person to make that assumption!"

 _'Oh but I am. I follow the list, your actions have placed you on it. Clear as day. The top name I might add.'_

"An Angel of Death?"

 _'Not one hundred percent correct, but I will give you points for trying.'_

"Who the Devil are you!?" Walter screamed out.

Anyone who happened to walk passed was going to get really confused and wonder what their master was telling about.

 _'I am just an admirer of yours.'_

"Creep."

 _'Says the one who locked two people up just because they refused to accept your love. If you can call that love.'_

"Stop it! Give me your name!"

 _'Sadly I can not.'_

"And why not?"

 _'Simple, I do not like you. I have to somewhat like you to give you the privilege of knowing my name.'_

Sara slowly started to wake up, her sleepy eyes began to open up, but she was hit with another wave of sleep.

 _'Did you really have to bite the girl. She did not deserve that.'_

"I am changing my destiny, my fate is going to change!"

 _'Good luck with that. It is hard to do. Even though your purpose was just to help self up the events of the world, to make them more stable.'_

"I'm a pawn?"

 _'Technically.'_

"I can not be a pawn in their game."

 _'Chrono set the clocks back on both 'Timeline A' and 'Timeline B.' About a thousand years ago.'_

"But Magnus is-"

 _'I am aware how old he is. Chrono placed Magnus here. A younger version of him. He was allowed to keep some memories from the original world that he came from, but not all. You were given memories that fitted Magnus into your life. Then about one hundred years later, Joachim happened. Magnus got jealous because none of his memories had returned by that point and he thought this life was his original life.'_

"...Are you one of them?"

 _'No but I do work with them on occasion.'_

"Who are you?"

 _'The Death Bringer.'_


	7. Chapter 7- Garden Forgotten by Time

Leon returned to the area where the warping platforms were, only this time there was no Cain. He was quite glad about that. He walked over to the second platform, he had no idea why he did. Before he knew it, he was standing on it being lifted up into the air. His eyes were amazed at the area, it looked like a garden. Strange to see one inside of a castle with an evil bloodsucking monster as its master. It was still beautiful to see. The light in the room seemed to come from one point, which was to the right. He took a few steps forward, onto the hard tiled floors, they were old. Deep green moss had been growing in the crevice between each of the tiles, it was soft underfoot and only certain parts of the floor. His eyes seemed to dance around the room, looking at the thick vines that covered the dull grey walls. He would have looked for a lot longer, but a Skeleton slacked him with its bone club, Leon was quick to kill it and its friend who appeared out of nowhere. It was then when he noticed the door to his right, he entered the door. Pacing himself down the long corridor and dodging passed all the Ghosts that were in his way. He came to a door that was similar to the one he found in the House of Sacred Remains, a triple lock. He sighed to himself and went back the way he came.

Leon went down the other door, he found another long corridor. But it didn't feel that long, he couldn't see that far in front of him. The corridor gradually became darker as he was so far away from the end of it, then it became lighter as he got closer. As he walked, he noticed a door on his right, he opened the door to find a strange statue. It looked out place, so naturally, Leon pushed it back into the space in the wall.

There was the rumble again.

He'd activated the switch, so he had to look for two more statues just like that one.

He walked out from the small room and continued down the long corridor when he came to an upper levelled room. Three moving bars came out from the wall, then a switch that flicked up, forcing the platform beneath it to be sucked back into the wall, he noticed the door. He knew what he had to do, Leon jumped as high as he could, successfully hooking on to the first bar. Flicking himself off and then moving onto the second, landing on the platform that was in the middle. Jumping back up, he hooked onto the last bar, flipping the switch with his whip and landing on the platform that it released. He continued on. He soon came to the second statue, he placed it back into the wall and carried on.

He walked into a room on his left, but something didn't feel right. Those red thick metal bars loudly sealed his entrance and exit. He was sensing a strange aura, coming from... The floor?

Leon didn't understand why he was sensing something from the floor. But it soon became clear to him why. A pair of sharp razor claws stabbed through the dirt, moving at high speeds. Leon dived out of the way, he used his whip to grab onto the claws. Using all of his strength, he pulled the creature out from the ground. An Evil Stabber, it was ugly. Leon didn't even want to look at it. He wrapped the whip around its neck and yanked on it, killing it instantly. The bars were removed, he saw a piece of paper lying on the ground, a map. 'Garden Forgotten by Time.'

"This will make things easier, this place is a beautiful maze," Leon said to himself.

He continued on, though he seemed to have made his way outside, he could hear running water and there was a fresh breeze coming from somewhere, he wasn't quite sure where. This did not stop him, he carried on. He came to several areas that felt the need to block him in to fight a series of monsters. The first had three Gargoyles. They were perched like statues up by the open roof, they came to life and swooped down to attack Leon. However, they weren't very threatening, it didn't take long for them to fall. The second had a total of six Axe Armours and two of those Evil Stabbers. The Armours started off with four, Leon thought they were easy and assumed he was done with them, but nope. Two more appeared along with the Evil Sabers. He killed them and carried on. Soon he came to two more areas, each with their own monsters. One had three Shadow Wolves and a Gargoyle, noting too hard. It also had 400 gold. The other had a Thunder Demon, which looked like a goat on its hind legs with wings. It was unsettling to look at. There were also some Skeleton Archer.

After a while of killing, he came to a crossroads, he decided to go to his right and he found the last statue. He placed it back into position and there was the last rumble. He travelled all the way back to the area where he started to go through the locked door. He knew the monster was ready for him, waiting to taste the might of his whip. He opened the door to find a practically empty room. The only thing that was interesting was a small ring that he picked up.

'Hope this Ring of Fire help, Cain.'

Cain... he clenched the ring hard in his hand, that for a second he might have broken it. Angre poured into Leon's heart, he wanted nothing more than to whip that Demon into next week for making him do all of them for a RING. He took several deep breaths and went all the way back to the outer gardens. Looking for where the monster might be.

He fought through quite a few (Skeleton Plants) before coming into a massive room that had way too many strange statues. There were around seven identical statues. All of them almost touched the ceiling. Leon couldn't quite work out what they were supposed to be. The best way he could describe them was part dog or lion with the legs and body, some sort of bird with the wings and a woman's head. All of them encased in gold, still a work of art. However there was no way forwards, Leon didn't really know what to do. He walked over to one of the statues and gave it a light tap, it produced a hollow sound. He gave it five quick strikes of his strongest attacks using the whip and it crumbled to the ground. Turns out they were made of stone, painted gold, disappointing. If they were so easy to put up and take down, then there had to be a hidden path behind one of them.

Leon was right, the third one on the left. He stepped through the door to find the skull and crossbones door again. The monster was behind it.

He opened the door after taking a moment to mentally prepare himself, to find a bare room. There was a single window that allowed light to come in. Statues of knights littered around the room and a giant one of a snake-haired lady. He looked around for a moment and his body swung round to see that he was trapped it.

"Why hello there young one." A female voice said to him.

His body darted round again, back to the statue of the lady. The stone was beginning to break. This was the monster, she broke free from her stony prison. She was just ahead, with lost of vicious snakes snapping as they slithered on her head. Her skin was a dark brown and scaly. Her large beady amber eyes looked into Leon's soul, sensing his fear. Her mouth hung open, revealing her long fangs that could touch the floor if she would let them.

"My, with that gorgeous body you would make an excellent statue." She said.

"Why thank- Statues?" He looked at the knights that were littered about, "Once people, turned to stone... Medusa."

"Ah, so you have heard of me. I have been making quite a name for myself, have I not?"

"Yes, but you will not be turning me to stone."

She snickered, "Really? Well, I think you should put your money where your mouth is."

Leon pulled his whip out.

"What kind of a weapon is that? I was expecting a sword."

"A whip can defeat any monster! Even a Legendary one like you."

"Monster? I am beautiful. How dare you spread such lies, I will grind you to dust."

One of the snakes gave a quick bite to Leon's shoulder, it had the strength to pick him up and throw him into the hard stone wall. With haste, he rose back up to his feet. The wound was bad, worse than the one he obtained from Parasite. Medusa gave a quick laugh as she rolled up into a ball, allowed herself to drop and charge towards him. Leon jumped out of her path several times, each of them she hit herself into the wall. She growled as she uncurled herself with a dizzy expression. Taking this opportunity to his advantage, Leon gave the beast some of his heaviest blows, allowing the whip to pick up wind as he spun around to increase the damage that he was doing to her. She arose again, her eyes glowing.

"Turn to stone!" Leon barely understood what she said.

But he knew that the eyes were a bad sign. He leapt out the way, the tails of his coat getting caught, turning them to stone. He flicked them on the ground to snap them off. The beast growled as Leon took flight, whipping her face with painful blows. She flinched every time the whip landed on her skin, slightly stinging her. Two of her snakes attacked him at once, one of them managed to grab onto his left arm. Though its fangs couldn't get through the enchanted armour of the gauntlet, it reared it's head back in the pain from the recoil from its bite. Medusa tried again to attack Leon with her stoning ray, but he rolled behind her, jumped with a spin and attacked her using his whip. She screeched out in pain, as Leon dropped a bottle of holy water onto her face. The content of the blessed water leaked out as the bottle smashed on her, burning her. Floating back into the air, she summoned stones and threw them at Leon, he used the gauntlet to block some of them. Sadly, two of them broke through his defence, catapulting him back. He spat his pureblood onto the floor and rose back to his feet. Medusa floated higher and she coughed up hundreds of snakes onto the floor. Leon stepped back and threw several bottles of holy water onto the floor to deal with them. It worked but he was completely out of the blessed bottles. He charged up to the monster, giving her powerful combos from his whip. Snapping it on her face, creating devastating winds to attack her which forced her to bounce against the wall. She lay there motionless for a moment, "Well done, boy. That whip... It's stronger than I remember. Why? What have you, done to it?" She said weakly.

"Jack shit!" A voice said.

Medusa's eyes opened to the shadows that were behind Leon, "...Cain?"

Quickly, Leon turned his body to see the Demon as his shadows vanished from his body.

"Yes, it is I." He walked up to Medusa's head.

"What do you mean? Is the whip not complete?"

"No."

"Good, then he... Stands no chance against the master..."

"Your master is going to rot in hell."

She slowly started to painfully return back to her stoned state.

"Rinaldo mention something about the whip being incomplete. What do I need to do to make the whip complete?"

"Ask Rinal-"

Leon gave him an angry look, something had annoyed him. He gave the Demon a quick short sharp strike from his whip, knocking Cain to the ground. The Demon growled, quickly sprouting back to his feet and grabbed Leon with his clawed hands in one fast motion.

"You made me so all of that for a ring."

Cain's angered demeanour vanished, replaced by a smile.

"That ring will help you if manage to make it to Walter." He said dropping the young man to the ground, "Use it wisely boy, consider it a gift." He said as his shadow engulfed him.

He took the Purple Orb that was left by Medusa and returned to Rinaldo's cottage. He walked inside.

He looked pleased to see Leon, safe.

"Rinaldo. Has this whip become stronger?"

Rinaldo turned to face Leon, originally he was moving his potions around again.

"Well, it seems that it fits you more than it did me. Your passion to save Sara, it is inspiring."

"But can we increase its power."

"No Leon! Its power should increase every time you slay one of those monsters."

Leon knew Rinaldo was keeping something from him.

There was silence between the two men, "It is best that we do not speak of it, you really do not want to know... You must return...Oh my, your shoulder!"

Leon completely forgot all about it, "I was meaning to purchase a serum for that, do you mind?"

"Of course not."

Rinaldo used all the medical knowledge that he had and healed Leon.

"Before I go, I need holy water. Do you have any?"

"Why yes."

He went around the back, through the door that Leon still didn't know what was behind there and can back with the supplies that he needed.

"Thank you," Leon said paying the man.

Leon then returned to fight the hordes again.


	8. Chapter 8- Nightmare

Summer 1023...

The sound annoying sound of tweeting birds awoke the young Joachim up from his slumber. He rubbed the sleep out from his eyes and had a massive stretch. Both his curtains and windows were open, his mother had already been in. She probably had an attempt to wake him, but he sleeps like a log. Impossible for her to get him up in the morning. Judging by the light that was coming from the simple looking window, it had already gone past midday. His bedroom was also quite simple looking, there was an average sized bed with oak frames. The bedsheets were white, with a silk lining underneath. His walls were painted a magnolia colour, with a light brown border at the top and bottom of all them. His carpets were a rich grey colour, but they were starting to look a bit old with the colour beginning to dull. Joachim got himself dressed, wearing a suit in the summer heat. He rushed downstairs, his mother had already started in getting the perpetrations ready for the celebration. Joachim was due to be wed in about three weeks, his mother was super excited about it. Her son had found the most beautiful bride, her name was Amelia. His mother decided to throw a party to celebrate the occasion. Joachim has explained to her countless times that it was unnecessary and they could have a party after the wedding. However, his mother's persistence persuaded him and his father, so she went along with it. His mother rushed out carrying a bunch of plates in her hands. She had her usually long blonde hair in a bun, she prefers to have it down so it can freely flow in the breeze. Her eyes were a dark brown colour, the light from the sun made them look almost tree coloured. Her dress was plain white, it puffed out at the hips. Making it obvious that she was wearing a corset.

Their back garden was filled with tables that were covered with a white cloth, there were around seventeen of them. Each table could fit about nine to ten people around it. They had vases filled with gorgeous flowers as the centrepiece and small lit candles. The guests were soon to arrive any moment, the family's chief was ready to take over one hundred orders. His mother ran back into the house to check to see if her husband was ready. Joachim turned around to see a man standing behind him. His sudden appearance caused the young man to fall.

"Who are you?"

The man wore a creamy coloured cloth that revealed his right shoulder and it touched down to his lower legs. His hair just touched his shoulders, it was a platinum blond colour, but in the bright light of the sun, it looked more of a white. His eyes were an icy blue colour which stared into the young man's soul. All of a sudden, a bright glass halo appeared just about his head and a pair of beautiful golden wings sprouted from his back. They flicked out all the dead feathers as they relaxed by his back, sparkling in the sun's rays.

"What are... An Angel?"

He smiled, "Who do you treasure most?"

Joachim looked at the rare creature with a confused glance, it was such a random question to ask, "Why do you wish to know that?"

"Answer it." He almost demanded.

Joachim wasn't sure, he would say his parents. But the question was implying that he had to choose one person. Then probably Amelia... He couldn't this with the Angel's shiny eyes staring back at him. He didn't know who to pick, Mother, Father, or Amelia.

"What will happen? If I choose someone."

He smiled, "Then the person they love will die."

"What!? How?" He didn't understand.

The Angel gave a sigh, "It is a reverse Death Wish. Usually, a person wishes for a specific person to die. So you would want, say the priest to die. The wish would grant that death. A reverse one takes the life of the person who you choose, but it will take their most precious person away from them. I know you are considering Amelia, but there is a chance that the wish could kill you."

"What?"

"Sadly, this little fun trick only works if more then four people are on the 'Death List,' it's a fun way to decide who dies."

"So you are an Angel of Death?"

He gave a half smile, "Of sorts. Your whole family and your fiancée's family are on the list. All of them will be attacked by a horde of monsters tonight."

"If I chose, will it stop them all from dying?"

"Could do. You have a ten per cent chance of preventing all of their deaths through this method. But one must go."

Only ten per cent... however, he could save over a hundred people. All of his Mother friends and family, his father's side and Amelia's family will be attending the party. All those people in one place, the monsters would have their own party, drinking their blood. He could tell his mother, but she would think he's imagining things and trying to delay the party by coming up with outlandish ideas. However, if someone was to die, the celebration party would become a funeral procession in a matter of minutes. He had to choose someone. If he chose his father, then either his mother or even himself could die. It really depends on who was closer to the person that he picked.

He couldn't decide, why did this Angel have to appear to him now. People dream of seeing an Angel, that's all they preach about sometimes at church. But now that one is in front of him, he wasn't so sure about if seeing one is a good thing. All it's done for him is brought a stupid amount of stress to his life, he didn't need it.

"I have not got all day, we Angels are busy you know."

Joachim turned to him, "Who sent you to me?"

The Angel looked a little puzzled.

"Was it God?"

He got a laugh out of that one, "No, though it was a God, just not the one you were thinking of."

"Then answer my question."

"I can not tell you that."

"Please..." He said with tears falling down his eyes.

He knew that crying would not solve anything, but his body didn't know how to respond to all the emotional stress it was having. He allowed the tears to fall to the ground as he let his head drop to his chest.

"The God of Time, Chronos. Sadly, he asked me to assist him to sort out a mess that was created. You are one of the keys to doing that."

"What!?" His head sprung to face the Angel, "How can I-"

"You created by your God specially to solve this mess. Originally you never existed Joachim. God changed your mother's fate so she could have you. She was supposed to die of a horrible disease before she even met your father."

"But why me? How am I so important?"

The Angel looked at him for a moment before speaking, "Walter Bernhard. The Lord of Castlevania, he was created for the same purpose. Though he doesn't know that. You need to be with him to allow the correct events to fall into place, otherwise, we will just be repeating the same mistakes."

Joachim wiped his eyes, "I chose my mother."

"Let's see who shall fall." He said clicking his fingers.

Joachim closed his eyes, expecting to fall dead. But a loud scream came from his parent's bedroom and the Angel vanished.

It was his father.

Joachim ran back into his house, tears still flowing down his face. He opened the door to find his father's motionless body.

"H-he's gone." His Mother sobbed.

Rain poured buckets on the people who were standing to mourn at the cemetery. All of the people who would have attended the party came to pay their

respects to Joachim's Father. The priest began with his speech, wishing him a good afterlife when Amelia stood behind him. She was over with her parents, but she moved to his side.

"Amelia?" He said, trying to hold back his tears.

She placed her hand on his shoulder to comfort him. Strangely, she pulled on his suit and he followed. She brought him out from the crowd and gave him a smile. She forced him to the ground and a pink gentle fire engulfed her, revealing that she was a he.

"What the?"

"Ah, so you have met Magnus. He's a very powerful Demon, can turn into any human he pleases." A voice said.

Joachim frantically looked around for the voice but was a little distracted by the Demon's growl and the snapping of his jaw. A man appeared behind the Demon, he gave a bow after he became visible.

"I am Walter Bernhard. It was such a shame to have your father so cruelly taken from you. I bet you would like to hunt down the beast who killed him."

Joachim looked confused as the man came closer to him an knelt by his side. Using his hand, he silently commanded the Demon to stop and sit. Walter turned back to face Joachim, giving him a strong passionate kiss. The other man was shocked, as too was the Demon. Neither of them expected it to happen. However, Joachim didn't back away from the kiss, he allowed it to happen. Embracing the other man, just like he would do with Amelia. Out of jealousy, Magnus gave a quick slash to Joachim's leg. The human stopped and screamed in pain. Walter slapped the Demon, he yelped in the pain from the backhand.

"I am sorry, he is not usually like this."

Walter looked down, crimson red desire leaked from Joachim's wound. It was deep, the bone was just showing, he didn't expect it to be that bad. His mouth started to water and his body began to shake. He wanted to bite the mortal. He wished for the thick red liquid to flow from his mouth, allowing it to gently fall from his fangs and onto the harsh floor. He took another look at the wound, Magnus had sliced through the vein. Blood started to gush out all on Walter. Joachim's vision started to become blurred. His head felt heavy and it became harder to breathe.

"You will be ok Joachim."

Walter moved the young man's head, revealing his neck. Pulling his fangs out, the Vampire bit into the human's flesh. Blood poured from Walter's mouth as he began to feed on the innocent human. It wasn't before long when Joachim had lost consciousness.

 _'Master!'_ Magnus telepathically said, _'Dead come of him!'_ Walter dug his fangs deeper into the young man's throat.

'Master!'

It looked like Walter hadn't fed in a long time with the way he was lapping the warm blood up. Quickly, Magnus took action. He bit into the back of his master's neck, prying him off the young boy. He was successful. Walter managed to break free of the Demon's grip, in one move he grasped Magnus tightly by the throat. The Demon could barely breathe, only able to grab the smallest amount of breath.

"That is the last straw, Magnus." He growled, "I should kill you for your betrayal."

'He need live.'

An idea came to Walter, "A Vampire mate... I like that idea."

'Go let of my breathing organ.'

"What? Your strange way of speaking is annoying. But you will still be punished!" He squeezed tighter, "Isolation."

Joachim jerked awake from his dream, he arose from the cold damp floor. Confused he said, "How did I remember that? I could have sworn I was unconscious."

'I shared my memories with you.'

"Magnus? I should have recognised your mind poking. What is the matter?"

'Nothing, well maybe if you class being chained up with a broken spine a good thing.'

Joachim's eyes widened, "He did not..."

 _'He did.'_ He sounded weak.

"Magnus, please hang on..."

'No, we are both trapped in two completely separate areas of the castle.'

"Where are you?"

'The Lab...'

"Magnus! I can get Walter using my telepathy."

'Why would he come?'

"You will die... I don't want to lose you." Joachim's desperation rose, he wanted to get out.

'Save your strength, the cat will be coming soon.'

"You too friend. I will try and get help."

So he hoped.


	9. Chapter 9 -Ghostly Theatre

Leon returned back to the teleporting platforms, he had three more monsters to slay. Three more trials before he could save Sara. Three more massive battles before he was to face Walter. Once again, he didn't know which one to go onto, which monster would die. He was being to get tired, he had no idea what time it was or if it was morning or night. There was no way of telling. He decided to go with platform number five. Again, he didn't know why nor did he care, as long as the monster at the end was dead by the end of it.

1F

The room that he entered into was a lot larger than he thought it would be. He was standing on a staircase which had quite a bit of space to move about on. A medieval battle could have taken place on these stairs. Most of the walls were painted a mahogany and gold colour, looked beautiful against the bloodshot red curtains. It was at that moment when he realised that he had stumbled into some sort of theatre. Sara used to tell him stories about the theatre, her mother used to take her to see expensive plays that were being put on in a town that wasn't too far away. Only took about two hours to get to it. The young girl had promised that Leon could come to the theatre when the next spring came. There were large bannister rails that he still could easily jump over. He was nearly assaulted by two Skeleton, which he quickly took care of. He travelled through the first door, a large room was what followed. An ear piercing, loud sound of lasers hit Leon, gifting him with a slight headache. But there was only one laser in the whole room. Leon noticed that the laser stopped when he faced it, which was bizarre. Though he was glad that there was a way to get passed it. He looked down and realised that there was a lower level that had a bunch of Skeletons down there, Leon didn't really want to go down there. The next room had two doors that he could go in, he decided to go left.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of bars coming up, blocking his way to progress through the castle. The room had an upstairs and a downstairs, complete with a small bunch of monsters. Skeleton Warriors and Ghosts paraded the halls, it did not take long for Leon to dispose of them. The door that he went through was long and it felt like it curved a little. In the middle of the wall was a golden loin statue that spat a cool gentle flow of water out of the lion's mouth. Leon took a moment to take a closer look. The detail that was there, it amazed him. The mane of the lion was beautifully carved out. It had fangs, clear eyes and a nose. However, he had to continue on.

Next came several of the dinosaur heads that were firing white lasers from their mouths. There was about five of them, the beams crossed each other. Leon taking a moment to come up with a solution as to how to get across. He thought he had worked it out, so he gave it a go. But he failed on the third beam, catapulting him to the right edge. However, there was a door on the side. He didn't fancy jumping down so he took the chance and went through the door.

He came to another room that felt the need to keep him in until he had defeated the monsters that were in there. Several Ghost Warriors and Skeleton Warriors appeared, Leon defeated them in a matter of moments, granting him the freedom to continue. Following his gut, he took another left, which took him down a second lion statued corridor and to a spacious room. He only had a moment to inspect the room, before boulders were catapulted from the ceiling. Leon didn't understand why they were coming from there. But he quickly dodged out of the way, huffing behind the red Minotaur statues. It only took one catastrophic blow from the powerful boulders to completely enolate the stature. With haste, Leon moved from cover to cover, but all four of the statues had been destroyed. However, the boulders had stopped, the southern door opened. Quickly, Leon went through it.

He then found himself in another locked door. This time he had to defeat several Ghosts and flaming Spirits. He took them down with ease and pressed on. He took the south door, only to have it lock behind him, Shadow Wolves and Spirits appeared. Leon was being to grow tired of the constant locking of the doors until the monsters were dead. It was just delaying his rescue. He killed them and continued. He then took a right, which only lead to an empty room, but he did hear the sound of the lasers. He was underneath one of those awful rooms, he retreated back after killing the Shadow Wolves that appeared and headed left instead. Which lead him to another locked room, where he had to fight Astral Knights and an Axe Amour. The Amour was a little tough to take out, but it was slow and clunky, easy to get around and attack from behind it before it could counter. It was when he entered the next room and went down the lion corridor, that he noticed he'd gone in a complete circle. He'd been and killed the creature that was there before. He continued on to find the boulder room again, but he saw something on the balcony that he didn't see before. He jumped up to grab it, a scroll.

'Here's a hint. When the bell tolls thrice under the stage, the curtain will rise. -Cain'

Leon didn't quite understand what that meant and he was not pleased with who it was written by, but he knew that he needed to find a bell somewhere in the theatre. Upon placing the piece of paper in his pocket, he saw another magically sealed door. He jumped down an tried to the same tactic to get it to open, even destroying the blue Minotaur statues, but nothing worked. So he left it for the time being.

He returned back to the first fork in the corridor that he came to and he headed the other way. After walking around for a little bit, he noticed that the layout of

this side and the other side were practically the same, just the monsters were different. He soon came to another boulder room, but this one was laid out a little differently, but the method of getting the door to be released from the seal was the same. Though this time there was only one door that Leon could go through, which he was glad about.

Spikes came from the ceiling in the next room, Leon was shocked to see them. Blood still dripped from the sharp surface. Leon took a deep breath and made a run for it, making sure to stay still in each obvious gap where the spikes would not hit him. He only knew this because there was no imprint where the spikes had been on the floor. Strangely, only two sets of spikes were immobilised, maybe the mechanism that forced them to rise was broken.

He then blazed through three rooms, they all locked behind him and he destroyed the monsters that slept in the shadows of those rooms.

A staircase, he saw it in the distance. He dodged past the Ghosts and dashed up then.

2F

The upper floors felt smaller than the downstairs, he didn't know why. They were just plain brown wooden walls, nothing really to them. He continued on, down the corridor to another spike room, which he wasn't expecting. He skillfully dodged past the spikes and found himself in another room that felt the need to lock behind him. The Axe Amour was the first to appear to him, then the Spirits. The Amour was also the first to fall to his whip, then all those annoying Spirits. He then found a room that had next to no light, he could only just see the narrow platform that was in front of him. However, he would have to jump to get across. Taking his time, he was careful to make sure not to fall into the unseen pit of darkness that was beckoning him to fall in. Successfully, he made it across and he entered the room. Finding another one of those practically bare rooms with next to nothing in it, besides from a bell.

"The answer to Cain's riddle... was not much of a riddle. Demons are clearly not the strongest writers."

"How dare you say that? I have been helpful to you." Cain's voice came from behind Leon.

He smiled, "Yes, but why?"

"I can not tell you that until the end. Lucifer's orders."

"Well... Fine, I will play your game. I am already playing Walter's."

"And you are doing so well. I shall see you later Leon."

"Wait! Where do I ring this?"

"Where you fell on your ass, cross the laser and continue from there." He vanished.

Leon gave a smile, "Thanks for the help, Cain."

1F

He returned back to where Cain had directed him to. Only this time, he made more of an effort to dodge the lasers and make it to the other side, without getting catapulted away. He managed to pull through, a sigh of relief came from his lips as he opened the door. He soon found himself in a room with a Cyclops and a Red Ogre. The two of them came charging at him, but the Cyclops was faster. It managed to fire its freezing beam from its eye, which would turn him to stone. He managed to roll out of the way, whipping the monster as he moved. The Ogre managed to tackle him into the wall, whilst his guard was sort of down. He gave the two of them hard fast blows from his whip, catching the wind in the attack. They were strong, stronger than any of the enemies that had been in the whole area. Between the two of them, they were starting to wear Leon down, but he managed to kill them using his whip before they got the best of him. The Ogre fell because Leon burned through a major vein using a combination of holy water and the whip. The Cyclops fell mainly due to Leon dodging and attacking its legs as he moved, springing up with a powerful attack. He looked down at their bodies burnt, noticing a piece of paper on the ground.

'Ghostly Theatre.'

It was a map...

It was no help now.

Leon continued on and it wasn't before long when he saw the familiar skull and crossbones door.

There was a clear stage, the light was fixated on that one point. It was made from wood, looked like oak at first glance. Knowing Walter, he wouldn't have some cheap oak in his beautiful theatre. No seats were present though, which Leon thought was a bit odd. The curtain that was at the back of the stage was a dark brown colour, almost black.

Leon pulled out the bell that Cain help him find and gave it a ring. For a small bell, it produced quite a loud sound.

Sara appeared from behind the curtain.

Leon could not believe his eyes, Sara was safe. He'd found her. Leon raced up to her, placing both of his hands gently on her shoulders.

"Sara, I'm so glad you are safe." He wanted to allow tears to fall down his face.

"Of course I would be safe, nothing in this castle can harm me."

Poor innocent Sara, in a mind of her own. She didn't realise that the castle had monsters that will kill her. Had she not seen any of them? Walter is a monster and he captured her.

"Have you seen the monsters?"

"Walter, he made me wear a blindfold. I only just managed to get it off, he has been keeping me here. Waiting for you to rescue me." She smiled.

"That explains it then."

A joyful expression came to her, "Okay shall we get going? We still have a wedding my sweet."

Leon looked down, "Your Mother, she's dead."

Sara looked shocked, "...Dead... No..."

He was surprised to see that she didn't cry when she heard the news.

"The wedding will have to wait, just for a little while. Your mother comes first."

"Of course, silly me."

'Kill her!'

Leon jumped to the sudden voice that had found its way into his head.

"What?"

Sara gave him a confused expression, "What is it?"

"A voice, you did not hear it. He told me to kill you."

She moved a small distance away from Leon, "You would not do that I hope?"

His eyes widened, "No, how could I?"

"Good."

'Kill her, Sara is being kept in the Pagoda.'

"The Pagoda?"

She looked confused, "Pagoda?"

"Who is that?" Leon asked.

"Probably the beast that attacked me."

"Sara..."

"A brown haired winged beast attacked me. He smelt awful...Probably the creature that I have been hearing about. Walter keeps him locked away in a tower somewhere in the castle."

"Why?"

"To rot."

'Kill her, she is not Sara.'

"Prove it you beast."

Sara was beginning to become wrapped with worry, her love was talking to a Demon who had made his way into her lover's head, it was being to scare her.

'She is like me, a Demon. Succubus, she has created an illusion so you think that she is your love. So that the kill is easier for her. Whip her and find out.'

"I wouldn't listen to that voice, we should get out of here." Her voice was becoming panicked.

'She has already lost half of the illusion, you are being to see her tiny screw ups.'

Leon did as the voice said, whipping Sara. He was afraid that the Demon was just messing with him, so he would attack Sara. He was right. 'Sara' started to melt away, revealing the Demon's true form. A blonde haired, gorgeous lady. Wearing next to no clothes, only a black thong and a corset. Her wings were large and black.

"MAGNUS! I hope you can hear me you traitor!"

'He betrayed me first, I follow no master.'

"Bold words for a Demon who is going to waste away."

'I will still live longer than you sweetheart.'

"Bastard!"

'Kill her poppet, she's irritating.'

"Fine, But it wants to know, why turn into Sara?"

She gave a spine-chilling laugh, "The irony. Being killed by the sole person you came here to save. It would have been, exhilarating! But Mags had to spoil my fun. Does not matter to me now, you will still die. Then Magnus will be next."

'I'll turn your brain to mush before you even got the chance. Now if you do not mind.'

"She will fall, for imitating Sara."

"Well if that's how you wish to play, then, I'd like to see you try and kill me."

The Demon smiled, a giggle came from her as she elevated herself up into the air. Leon was determined to kill her. Throned hot pink roses sprung up from the wooden stage. Dodging them quickly, Leon struck with a powerful blow from his whip. She cried out in pain as it snapped across her thighs. Angrily, she hissed at the man, forcing more of her roses to appear by his feet. He didn't understand why she was wasting her energy on pointless attacks, but it did give him an open opportunity to strike her. Twirling like a tornado, she picked up rose petals as she came towards Leon. He leapt out of the path of her attack, forcing her to smack into the wall. She tired this tactic several times. The roses he was certain they were just there for decoration. After a few attempts, she managed to get him with her tornado, he collided with the wall with a thump and she didn't stop there. She was ready for another one. Leon hadn't recovered from the last one, he was struck again. Once again, each strike from her sent him catapulting into the wall.

With haste, Leon pulled out his dagger and jabbed it through the torso of the Demon. She gave a screech that made Leon want to rip his hair out. However, she was quick to jab him in the stomach with her powerful legs. He stumbled back as she wrapped her arms around him, giving him several kisses on the face. He rejected all of them, struggling to get away from the Demon. He managed to stab his dagger into her thigh. Blood poured out over the floor as she flailed her head back in the pain. He rolled out from her grasp and gave her another blow with his whip. Chucking holy water onto her screaming frame, he cautiously moved round to the back of her body. Using his brute strength, he grabbed onto the wing and dislocated it. Her screams were worse than before, Leon tried to end her using his dagger. However, she managed to turn herself before the blow could hit her. It took all of her strength to stay awake, the voice of sleep echoed around her. Wanting her to fall. The pain was too great. She had gone as white as a sheet, her balance was off and her vision was beginning to become hazy. But she had to continue on, he

Master wishes for her to be victorious. With her left-wing immobilised, she would have to make do with staying on the ground. She placed her hands up into the air, spiked vines came from the floor. They arced up from the ground, twisting and twining like a hungry viper as they came towards Leon. He put all his strength into a three-hit combo to kill the plants, the last one hit the Demon.

She fell to the ground, buffing as Leon stood victorious.

Her dying eyes looked up at him, "How could this be? I-If I had foreseen this, I would have ended your life whilst I was disguised as your lover."

"Sorry, but the voice gave you away."

"How dare he, traitor to our master."

 _'Good day, milady._ ' The other Demon mocked her.

"I hope you rot soon Magnus."

'Die already bitch.'

"Yes, I must speak with Rinaldo before the ne-"

The She-Devil laughed.

"What's so funny?"

She gave another laugh, "His daughter...He had to do unspeakable things...to her..."

"What do you mean? Speak sense!"

Her body flopped to the ground, dead. He grabbed the Yellow Orb before leaving.

It was best that he asked Rinaldo himself.


	10. Chapter 10- Vivid Memories

The warp point brought Leon straight outside of Rinaldo's house. He took a deep breath. He wished to speak to the older man about what that Demon had said, about his daughter. It was pretty vague and he didn't understand what she meant, but he needed to ask. He took a second long breath before walking in.

Rinaldo has his back turned to the door, sorting out the potions that were messed up on his shelves. He didn't hear Leon come in, so he was sort of shocked when the older man turned around.

"Leon!?" Rinaldo jumped, "I didn't, no matter. I am glad that you are okay."

"As am I. Rinaldo, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

At least he was happy to accept Leon's questions, whether he would answer was a different story.

"Do you have a daughter?"

Rinaldo gasped, "You do not need to know." He snapped.

"Rinaldo, you have helped me so much, the least I can do is listen to your story."

Rinaldo thought for a moment, he really didn't want to tell Leon. However, opening up to what happened and accepting it, might help him move on.

"Alright, I will tell you. It was five years ago..."

Leon felt a strange pain in his head and so did Rinaldo.

Winter 1089

Joachim places his gaze outside, looking out at the fluffy white freezing snow that began to fall from the sky. Though he did not feel the cold. He was now a Vampire, immortal beast that fed on human blood. It was hard for him to believe, but the sun should be shining through the clouds. Sadly, Walter found a way to cast out the sun, placing the area in a blanket of eternal darkness. The Vampires That lived within the castle loved this curse, they did not lose their powers, their strength would never fade. However, Joachim wasn't so on board with the new curse. He missed the sun, even though it was winter so he didn't see much of it anyway. It's warming light gently heating his freezing skin, it was a relaxing feeling that he enjoyed.

The sight of a man broke him out of his daydream. Judging from his clothing he looked like a warrior. He trekked up in full body armour, complete with a long sword and shield. A determination was written all over his face. The Vampire couldn't see much of the scene, but another man appeared. He was dressed in simple clothes, looking quite old. They were clearly Father and son.

'The cat has arrived.'

"Cat? Magnus? I thought you hated me?"

'For what?'

"For knocking your pride a bit."

'Oh, I forgot that you had replaced me as Walter's lover.'

"I am his Lieutenant, Magnus. Nothing more."

'He still has not made his move on you? I'm surprised at him. Or has he?'

"No... Maybe, I do not..."

'He has... He spelt you did he not?'

Joachim's eyes widened in the realisation too that Walter had been doing.

'He's sneaking that dog.'

"Hang on, Walter said that your speech was limited." He pointed out.

'Everything that I do is an act. That's all we do sweetheart.'

"And your love for Walter? An act?"

Magnus went silent for a moment, he couldn't really think of the correct way to form the answer.

'... I was. Now I am just a toy that he decides to get out whenever he's horny.'

"Do you enjoy it?"

'No recently, that cat looks cute.'

"Which one?"

'Young one.'

"Ok, so what's this 'cat' thing about?"

'The ass has taken one that they love hostage. Why do you not go and take a look?'

"I like your idea."

Joachim vanished to the entrance to the castle. From a distance, he could hear the two men, the older one talking about the plan that they were coming up with. The Vampire gave a smile to their ideas as they entered the castle.

"Who are you?"

"Be careful son, he's one of them."

"Oh, so you are aware of Vampires. Then why do you come here?"

"For a chance to challenge me." A proud deep voice said from behind Joachim.

With his shoulders high, Walter floated down the steps. The two humans could not believe their eyes. He landed next to his lieutenant and gave a smile.

Anger grew in the older man's eyes, "You will pay for what you did to my wife and daughter!"

Joachim sighed, "What did you do?"

"I- killed her." A different voice said.

It was a woman, she too floated down the stairs. She was gorgeous, obvious that she was his daughter. She wore a white nighty that was drenched in blood, her mothers. She seemed quite pleased with herself and her new life. She vanished, quickly latching onto her brother. He struggled, but the pain would not leave him. Her furious bite only increased in strength as he tried to get out of her grip. The older man pulled a whip from his belt, snapping it at the girl. She flew off the young boy, his body sunk to the ground as she released it.

"Owww." She wined, "Father."

"You are not my daughter! Beast of the night!"

"Harsh." She said, "I guess I should kill you with your wife and son."

"He's not..."

His gaze turned to his son, motionless, his chest didn't move.

Dead.

Tears came to the older man's eyes. He snapped his head to face his daughter, holding the whip tight in his hands. She gave a small giggle, "I hope Jessabel is watching."

Joachim gave a smile, "I can fetch her if you like?"

"Please, I wish for her to watch."

However, her father decided to crack his whip on her face. Pain ran down her cheek as she hissed. Joachim vanished to get the Succubus, who liked to perform in the Ghostly a Theatre. Her father wasn't wasting any time. He began to pull some crazy whip combos. She didn't think her father could still move like that, she was finding it difficult to dodge the whip. She didn't understand why it hurt so much when the leather touched her skin. Trying her best, she fought her father, occasionally appearing behind him and knocking him into the walls.

"She is not doing very well," Jessabel said.

"Give her chance." Joachim said, "She has not been a Vampire for very long."

Walter gave a single chuckle, "If he fails to end her, then I will."

Joachim gave a shocked expression, that was a strange sentence to come from his master to say. Over the past few years, he had noticed a change in him, a dark one.

He closed his eyes, _'Magnus, have you noticed a difference with the master?'_ He telepathically said.

'Sweetheart, that change has been there for about five hundred years. You were just the tipping point.'

'What!?'

'Well, you came and he grew cautious, protective of you and the castle. He placed the area in an eternal night to prevent you from losing your power. Plus, he was worried you would burn.'

'Burn? That does not happen to us, that is a myth.'

 _'It can happen! It can take up to forty years for your body to not burn from the sun.'_ Magnus snapped.

'Sorry, I should not have doubted your knowledge, you have been here longer.'

Justine Gandolfi became wrapped in a blanket of flames as her body vanished, she had been defeated. Rinaldo's breath had become hard and heavy. He swallowed the saliva that's was in his mouth to prevent his throat from drying out.

"You are next Walter!"

"How dare you challenge the master!" Jessabel said.

This forced Joachim to open his eyes.

"What you forced my daughter to do... it makes me sick. How could you do that to a young girl!?"

Walter let out a bellowing laugh, "I do not care what you think of me. I did it for my own entertainment."

"What?" Joachim said.

'He has lost it.'

"How could you say that?" Rinaldo snapped.

"Because I am the Lord of this castle! Unbeatable!"

"We shall see."

Rinaldo charged up to Walter, leapt into the air and he released a devastating crack from the whip. But the Vampire didn't flinch. He tried again, nothing. He gave him several combos, nothing.

"You are just wearing yourself out little man, though it is quite fun to watch you squirm."

"How dare you!?"

Walter let out another laugh.

'Magnus, he is pure evil.'

'It is the castle. He opened a Hell Gate remember. The dark aura has clouded his mind, driving him mad.'

'You are not affected because you are a Demon.'

'Yes, though eventually, it will take your mind too.'

Joachim swallowed hard, 'How do I stop that from happening?'

'Kill Walter and close the gate.'

Killing Walter was easier said than done.

 _'But I would become Lord of the castle.'_ Joachim said to the Demon.

'Exactly, the castle is in desperate need of a new owner.'

Joachim gave a hiss at Walter, which shocked the older Vampire. He was confused.

"Joachim, what are you doing?"

"Killing you."

Pure surprise was in the Vampire's eyes, "Betrayal? Why?"

"You have grown mad Walter." He said as his swords began to fly around him, "I am taking you out."

"And what makes you so sure that you can?" Walter proudly announced.

Joachim has no answer to that question, he allowed a sword to fly past his head and slash Walter. It bounced off something. A shield? He tried again, allowing several swords to attack him with a massive amount of force. The attack drove him backwards, nearly knocking Jessabel

over, but it didn't break the shield.

"How dare you betray me!? I can not believe it! You! Of all my servants!"

"Betrayal comes from where you least expect it."

"...It was Magnus... putting ideas in your head." He sounded a little bit panicked.

"How could it have been Magnus?" Joachim said, pretending to forget that the Demon was capable of Telepathy.

Walter seemed to calm down, "So this is by your own will? Then why?"

Joachim sighed, "You have grown mad Walter. I do not wish to follow a madman, so I am taking charge!" He said boldly.

"Such words, boy. But that's all that they are, words."

Joachim growled, allowing his swords to bring their assault on Walter for a third time. However, they were never going to get past the shield. Walter knew of that fact. The older Vampire vanished, appearing right in Joachim's face and he grasped him by the throat. Joachim's blades fell to the ground, clanking as they did so.

"Fine, if you wish to betray me. Then I hope that you are ready to face my punishment!"

He charged up a fireball in his hands, shoving it into Joachim's body and throwing him across the room with the same hand. Rinaldo leapt, giving one last attempt to stop him, but the Vampire used the same power. Catapulting Rinaldo away in a fiery mess.

Walter picked up Joachim and vanished with him. He reappeared in a damp moss infested area, almost looking similar to a prison cell. Walter chucked Joachim in as he started to regain consciousness.

"You will stay there for the rest of your days!" He said locking the door.

Joachim rose back to his feet.

"Do not even think about escaping, blessed water runs in front of this door. Good luck getting out."

He will one day and on that day, he will kill Walter. Taking his victory.

Leon gave a loud gasp as he awoke, he felt like he'd nearly drowned underwater. Rinaldo did the same. The two men rose to their feet, confused as to what had happened.

"What was that?" Leon said rubbing his head, he'd probably smacked it on the way down.

"I am not sure, but that is what happened. I-I created the whip to kill her."

"And you did it. But that barrier?"

 _'It is the Ebony Stone.'_ Magnus said weakly.

"Ebony Stone?" Leon said.

Rinaldo nodded, "So it was you who showed us that."

'Yes, it was a combination of yours, Joachim and my own memory of that event.'

"How?"

'Oh Leon, I have the ability to pluck out specific memories from one person or multiple and show it to another in a dream-like state.'

"Amazing..."

"Ummm... Yes, it is, but I would like to know more about this Ebony Stone." Rinaldo said.

'Very well. The Ebony Stone is the second greatest treasure amongst Vampires. Having the ability to engulf an area in a never-ending night. Though Walter believes that he is invincible as well as immoral.'

"Why is that?" Leon questioned.

'The Alchemist, who went by the name Cronqvist told him that it can command Death.'

"Death? As in the Angel of Death?" Rinaldo said.

'No Azrael himself, but our world's head Reaper.'

"I see..."

"Mathias told him that?" There was a hint of sadness in Leon's voice.

'I am only telling you what I heard.'

"But that was five years ago, so his wife would still be alive... so he was dealing the Vampires! Why? Did Elizabetha know!?"

'That I do not know. All I know is-'

The Demon seemed to be struggling to maintain his link with the two of them.

"Magnus!"

"Leon, allow the Demon to rest. You need to go."

"Yes." Leon went to the door, "Rinaldo, have you heard of the Demon Cain?"

Rinaldo gave him a confused look, "No, I haven't, why?"

"He has been appearing to me. I just wanted to know why."

"I will see what I can find out for you."

"Thank you, Rinaldo." He said opened the door, exiting the cottage.


	11. Chapter 11- Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab

Thanking Rinaldo Leon left, with worry in his heart. The two Demons who were helping him, one was dying and he had no way of helping him, the other was off doing God knows what and only appeared whenever he felt like it. He wished that Cain was a little bit more reliable, but he was a Demon after all. One of the strongest in Hell. Leon didn't really know much about him his only hope was that Rinaldo could pull through and find something out about him.

He walked back onto the castle and returned to the warp room. He took the first platform, allowing it to fly up into the air.

1F

The area that he appeared in was plain wield. Both progressing doors decided to lock on him and a pair of Skeletons appeared. He killed them and took a look around the room. The walls were covered in dull brickwork that stuck out, looking a bit cheap for a grand castle. Brown oak barrels were neatly stacked in the back two corners of the room. He wasn't sure what was in them, but he didn't really care that much either. Three roaring fires were lit on the left-hand side of the room, two big ones and a small one in the middle. Over to the other side was another fire, three brewing potions were connected to it, bubbling away to themselves.

He decided to head down the door that was right in front of him, which was actually the one on the left. The corridor that he ended up in was long but he could just see a sharp bend at the end of it. Along the walls there were lit caged fires, this seemed strange to Leon. He ignored it and strutted down it and entered through the door on the other side. Large iron bars rose up in front of both of the doors. Growing tired of this trick, he quickly made work of the Ghost Knights and Skeleton Swordsmen that appeared, he continued on. Another long corridor he made his way down, though this one had a fork for him to chose a path. The way was simple, he went right. He made his way passed the Flame Zombies and carried on. The bars came upon him once again, Hellhounds and an Axe Armour appeared. He made quick work of them before continuing on. He blazed down the corridor and continued going the same way, to find another long corridor, he had his eyes on going straight ahead. The room that he entered in was an open library. Bookshelves were placed against the back walls. There was so much space for Leon to move around in, it almost seemed strange to him because the rest of the area had such narrow corridors. Gaint intertwining Stone rings hung from the ceiling, it was a sight to see. But he had to carry on, Sara was waiting for him. He moved passed the Flame and Frost Zombies. However, he took note of the massive statue that was next to the progressing door. He didn't know what it was for, but there was definitely a door behind it. Leon gave it a few snaps from his whip, but it wouldn't break. He ignored it and continued on. He realised that he was in another part of the library, a part that felt the need to lock him in. Until he had killed the Axe Amours and Ghost Knights that were in the room. He did just that and carried on. He then took the first door of the long corridor, he could see that there were plenty of rooms to go in, but he wanted to go in the door that decided to lock him inside. Flame Zombies and a Mad Diver were the enemies that he had to defeat. The Zombies were easy enough, he was good at killing those. The Mad Diver took a bit of time to kill, it kept going under the ground for starters so he had to wait for it to surface again when it did, he gave it hell. Once they were dead, he found another text.

'You will know the false wall from the tapestry of the flying two headed one.'

"What?" He said loudly.

What was that little slip of paper going on about?

He placed it in his pocket and walked out. Right in front of a door was the map, 'Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab.' it read. He placed that into his pocket and headed down the second door which he found the stairs to the next floor.

2F

There was nothing really interesting about the first floor, in terms of looks, it was just like the first floor. He took a quick look at the map, taking note of the fact that there was a third floor. He hoped that he wouldn't have to go up there and that the monster was on the same floor as him.

Suddenly, a pure black shadowy wolf appeared to him. Its eyes were red as fire, it dashed across the floor like a bolt of lightning. Growling at him, it jumped into the air, slashing him across the face. Before vanishing into the shadows. He wiped the blood that dropped from his face and he took a long trek down another corridor. He found himself in another strange room. It was boiling in the room, probably because there was what looked like the top of a furnace below him. It was barred up so no one could fall into it but still, it made the room's temperature almost unbearable. He wondered how the Skeleton Plants that were below him were surviving down there. A moving platform came close to him, he leapt on it and allowed it to get to the end. He jumped off and entered through the door to his left. He came face to face with another long corridor and the next room that he entered barred upon him. A single giant red Ogre appeared, followed by several red Skeleton. He did his best to ignore the Skeleton because why cannot die. They break apart and rebuild themselves after a few minutes, so there was no point in trying to kill them. However, the Ogre wanted Leon dead. Swinging its giant club about, trying to hit Leon. It made its mark. The man was sent flying into the wall. He recovered quite quickly and wrapped his whip around the right arm of the beast, he yanked it down and stabbed it in the neck with his dagger. Flopping dead next to him. He rose back to his feet and carried on.

He entered the room at the end of the corridor, large piles of rubble were on the ground. Leon moved passed it and saw a large stone slab that had the word 'meth' engraved on it. He didn't understand why it was there.

"Looks like someone did not take a trip to the third floor." A voice said.

With haste, Leon turned around, Cain stood there with a grin. He looked at the blood that was still dripping from

Leon's face.

"Oh, my Shadow Creature got you." He said coming closer and flicking the blood off with his index finger. He gave it a lick before smiling again.

"Shadow Creature?"

"They are created from my Shadow powers, live to serve me. They are my eyes."

"Then why did it scratch me?"

"She marked you."

"...The mark of Cain..."

Cain gave out a booming laugh, "No you nitwit, it is just their mark. It is the Protecting Scratch. They will come to you now." He handed him a small black flute, "Well, they will now."

"..."

"The Shadow Flute. Summons the creatures of the shadows to your side to assist you in battle. But be careful, they are not all wolves."

Leon nodded, "Thank you, Cain, about the third floor?"

"Oh yes. You can get to it by heading straight doing the corridor. You will need to find the e tablet before Golem will awaken."

"Alright then," Leon said as Cain vanished away.

He followed Cain's directions and headed down the corridor, dodging passed all the monsters that opposed him.

3F

It wasn't before long that he found another room where he became trapped by the iron bars. Only Astral Warriors appeared to him, he made quick work of them and carried on. The corridor that would usually be empty had flaming swords. He thought it was a little strange to see a flying flaming sword, but he easily dodged passed it. He walked down to the end and saw the tapestry that the Ancient text spoke of. He didn't really know what to do, he leapt up to attack it, thinking that to would break. But he was sucked into the tapestry instead. He realised that he was in another room with nothing in it except for one thing, the Arctic Ring. He had no idea why he needed it but he grabbed it an left. He stutters down to the opposite end of the corridor and he soon came to a room with a massive telescope. Why was it there? Why did Walter need a telescope? He didn't know why he needed it. He moved around it and jumped up the bookshelf. Snapping his whip at a statue that had a leaver coming out of it, the ground started to rumble. Several blocks came out from the wall. Leon ran over to them, using his whip to flick himself across the two poles and onto the bricks. He leapt from platform to platform, just making it up in time before its collapse on him. He opened the door to find the e tablet that Cain was talking about. He grabbed it and headed back.

2F

Upon arriving in the room, he placed the e tablet into the hole and the rumbling began. Pieces of rubble flew into the air, coming together into on entity. Golem. It was a huge rock giant, with giant gleaming red eyes. Chains all over its body and a thirst for Leon's blood.

There was no confrontation with the beast. It swung its large arms at the young man, smacking him into the wall. Leon felt his blood drip from his mouth, he used his sleeve to wipe it before attacking the beast. He snapped his whip at the creature, it gave a roar. Leon jumped into the air, letting a bottle of holy water drop onto the creature's body. Giving out a second screech, Golem covered its eyes. Though it did manage to punch Leon into the wall once again. The young man gave it another devastating whip combo. The creature fell to the ground as Leon threw another bottle of blessed water onto its body. In retaliation, it used its long arms to propel Leon into the wall again. There was no end to the amount of strength this creature had. Golem managed to grab hold of Leon, the man looked quite small in its hands. The creature gave Leon a hard squeeze, he thought his eyes would pop out. It was then when the Shadow Flute fell from Leon's pocket. Golem flung the man into the wall once again, the flute rolling next to him. Leon picked the flute, giving it a hard blow. No sound came from it, but the shadows seemed to come to life. A wolf, tiger, fat boar, giant bat and a horse appeared from the shadows. Leon was amazed at them as the five shadow animals stood proudly in a circle around Golem. The horse was the first to attack, charging straight into Golem. Leon got up off the floor, picking the whip up and he leapt onto the air smashing his whip onto the head, a loud cracking sound was heard as he did so. The tiger was next, using its claws and its speed to quickly attack Golem, cracking its rocky exterior even further. Leon chucked another bottle of holy water onto Golem, allowing its content to spew out. The wolf was next, it melted into the earth, grabbing Golem by its shadow and dragged the creature down onto the ground. Several pieces of it flew off, it lay there motionless.

...

Or so he thought.

The pieces came back together, minus one arm, it was ready for round two. The wolf emerged out from the shadows, smacking Golem with claws that moved at a lightning speed. It was overwhelmed by this and stumbled a bit. Leon gave it several strong snaps from his whip. Knocking the creature back, as the bat flew in, claws like iron, ripping off apart off Golem. But it still wasn't done. Golem used the chains that were on its arms to catapult its fist to smash the bat into the wall. It vanished in a mist of shadows, defeated. The boar groaned, it charged up to Golem with clamping its jaws with a powerful bite. However, Golem jumped into the air, landing on the shadowy boar. It too was lost to the shadows. Leon whipped Golem's already half broken legs clean off, he fell apart and the remaining Shadow Creatures vanished. Golem's remains formed the Red Orb, Leon took it and teleported back to Rinaldo's Cottage.

He entered the cottage with such confusion on his face. Rinaldo knew that something was wrong. Leon placed some money on the counter and the Alchemist got the necessary potions to fix him up. Rinaldo sat Leon down with potions and bandages at his side.

"What happened?"

"The beast Golem. It got the best of me."

Rinaldo was shocked to hear that, "Is, it dead?"

Leon nodded, "Thanks to Cain and his shadows."

He placed the Shadow Flute on the table, Rinaldo seemed to flinch at the sight of it.

"...Legendary Shadow Flute... Humans have tried to get their hands on it for centuries. Says it has the ability to command the underworld creatures. A fraction of Cain's power."

"A fraction?"

Rinaldo nodded, "He is not the left hand to Lucifer for nothing."

"So what did you find out about him?"

Rinaldo sighed, "Well, everything that the bible spoke of is true. How he killed Abel to sleep with his own twin... all true. However, upon his death, his soul was sent to a strange part of hell. The Ash Plains, one of two branching areas of area eight of Hell."

Leon didn't say anything, he was already lost.

"When a Demon is vanquished, that is where they end up. Their souls are to be devoured by a Soul Sapper, it is not a pretty fate. Azreal sent his soul there so that he would be dealt with quickly for his crimes. He found the souls of a Demon Lord, took his abilities and now he rules most of Hell with Lucifer."

"...And the flute?" He said in pain as Rinaldo treated his wounds.

"Not much is known about it, only that Cain originally created it so he could command the Shadow Creatures, over time he relied on it less and less, the flute is practically useless to him now. However, I will assume he will take it from you on your death bed, he wouldn't want that kind of a powerful object falling into the wrong hands."

Rinaldo finished up fixing Leon, "I recommended you take a break for a while."

"I have been going for a while, that is a wise idea."

"Come, I have a small bed that you can use around the back."

He followed Rinaldo so he could rest and recuperate.


	12. Chapter 12- Her Worst Nightmare

Sir Belmont, do you take Lady Trantoul to be your lawfully wedded wife." The priest said.

Her eyes gazed into Leon's gorgeous blue. He held her hands tightly, they had waited for the moment for so long. His hair had been perfectly brushed, light bounced off it, making it look white. His clothes were the ones that they had specially tailored, a white suit with a tailed jacket. He looked so handsome with the small blue rose that poked out from his pocket. She had waited for her wedding day for so long. She had been planning her perfect wedding since she was a little girl, everything was exactly how she wanted it.

"I do." Leon proudly said.

"And do you Lady Trantoul take Sir Belmont to be your lawfully wedded husband."

She was still unconvinced that it was happening her wedding day. Holding hands with Leon. Her parents, the priest, the church, everything. She became overloaded with nervousness and excitement that she wanted to be lit like a firework, fly off and explode in light, colour and sound.

"I do." She gave an excited grin.

A familiar odour filled the room, Sara cuffed her noise and so did everyone else in the church. Wind burst through the giant doors followed by a large lounge booming growl. The Demon stood there on all fours, growling at everyone there.

"No why?" Sara said.

The Demon's eyes shone a deep shade of glowing pink, a quarter of the people on the left side held their heads in pain. They all screamed at the top of their lungs. Some smashed their heads into the pew so hard that it killed them. The others, their brain exploded. Blood spewed out from their eyes, black blood. It then happened to the rest of the left side and then the right. It effortlessly killed all one hundred people that were in the church. He cautiously walked down the aisle, moving his hips from side to side as he feet and hands hit the ground at adjacent times. It came up to the vicar, jumping up and slashing at his throat. He lay dead with his holy book on his chest in a blooded mess.

Leon stood out to save Sara, pulling his trusty sword out, the one that he always kept with him. The Demon gave a smile as his eyes shone that deadly colour again, though it was dimmer. Suddenly, Leon was flung into the statue of Jesus Christ that was in the centre of the altar. He was still alive, but not for long. Leon slightly let go of the blade and the Demon forced it to float in the air.

Stabbing it into Leon's-

Sara woke up with a gasp, sweat poured from her. Her hurried breath, the water that poured out from her body. A nightmare. She rose from the bed that Walter had given her, placed her slippers on.

"What is taking him so long!?" Sara exclaimed.

She had begun to pace wildly around her room. Waiting for he loved one to save her. She hopes that it would not be long before he came to her rescue. She didn't want that nightmare to come true, she wished to see Leon again.

She wandered over to the window, pulling back the crimson curtains, hoping to see her love dash passed her view. However, that would never happen, since she knew that was was being kept at the back of the castle. She couldn't see the drawbridge, which was at the front. Allowing her mind to wonder, she thought Leon and the wedding that they would have had if she wasn't stuck here. The dream that she just had... The wedding was a wall she could think of. They would actually be married, the ceremony would have been over and done with around six hours ago. She sighed to herself, tears slowly made their way onto her cheek. Attempting to wipe them from her eyes, she moved arms to do so but failing since they had started to run too fast. She moved away from the window, the thoughts of the dream wedding that she would have had were too much for her to deal with at the moment.

Finally, she came to sit on the bed, her body was still in a little bit of shock from the dream. She flopped down on the bed with her arms spread out wide.

She could escape...

The idea came out of nowhere, but it was an idea. She had no idea where she was in the castle, but it couldn't be too far from the exit. With courage in her heart, she got up and walked over to the door. She took a giant deep breath as she opened the door. It wasn't locked? Walter was a rubbish kidnapper if he kept the doors to his hostages unlocked. She didn't really care at this point. Racing down the dark corridors, desperately trying to find her way out. There were no monsters patrolling the halls to prevent her from escaping. It all seemed strange to her. Was she a hostage or a guest? She wasn't certain anymore. She was not sure which way was the correct way to the exit. The castle was like a maze. Her gut told her to go right, however, as she started to go down that way, there was no clear indication that she was making any progress at all. So she tries left, the same thing happened, she attempted the right path. Convinced that she had missed a hidden door or something that she had missed.

She was lost, her body slumped over onto the floor. She had given up, tears began to fall again.

Meow!

She jumped at the sudden break in the silence. She wiped her eyes.

Meow!

A little ginger, white and black cat brushed itself against her leg. She smiled at the animal and lifted it up into her arms.

"Are you lost too kitty?"

Meow...

"I am too... I do not really know where I am."

"The Pagoda." A sudden voice said.

"..." What she saw shocked her.

An Angel.

His wings sparkled silver in the bright moonlight. They were large and neatly groomed, looking quite fluffy. He was of average build wearing a white sari type piece of cloth over his chest and the bottom of his torso. His skin was quite pale, though he looked even more so when compared to Sara. Long blond locks sprouted from his head and his gorgeous eyes were a sea blue.

"Do my eyes betray me?" She said raising herself back to her feet.

He shook his head, "No my lady. Am I what you see me as."

Even then she still couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"But what is an Angel doing down here?"

"To give you some guidance."

A breath of relief crosses her lungs. God was watching her, sending an Angel to assist her in this desperate time. Her hands still clung to the cat that was in her arms, it started to growl.

She looked down at it, trying to get it to stop. But it would not. She continued to stroke it, however, even that didn't work. She was good with animals, especially cats, knowing when they are angry. It felt threatened by the Angel that stood before her.

"What a strange animal..." he said.

Its hissing and growling would not stop.

"Oh stop that!" She placed the cat on the ground.

The Angel smiled, "I can get you out of here."

"Really?"

He nodded, "The way is shut. Sealed by a magical barrier, only killing five monsters will break it."

She clenched her hand to her chest, "That is what Leon is doing. Fighting for me."

"Yes. But you can make all that suffering and all the fighting end. If you come with me."

He placed his hand out towards her, she was going to go with him. However, the cat hissed at her feet, distracting her attention away from the kindhearted Angel.

"He is lying to you, Sara." A voice said.

The girl quickly swung her head around to turn to the voice that came from behind her.

Cornelius Fernandez.

Mathias' closest friend stood tall halfway down the corridor. He looked pretty serious, his cat returned to his side.

"I would listen to Kathleen if I were you, my dear." He said with his accented voice.

Sara gave the Sorcerer a confused look, she had no idea what he meant. The Angel was going to save her. How was that a bad thing?

Cornelius' turned his head to the side, "He means to kill you!"

Her eyes widened, "What? No!"

"Not exactly Sorcerer."

"Sorcerer?"

"I am merely here to add spice to the young girl's tragic fate. I am here to make sure that events follow the path that they were destined to go in." The way that he spoke sounded very familiar to Cornelius.

"...It can not be... You are another version of a Guardian?"

The Angel laughed, "There is no Angel of Time. Well, I guess you could count Lucifer."

"He is a Demon!" Sara claimed.

He smiled, "And where is your proof?"

"The Bible!"

He gave a single tut to her claim, "Not true."

"He fell from Grace and was transformed into the King of Hell."

"But how did he fall?"

"He grew power hungry and wanted to overthrow God..."

"Not quite. But I can not tell you the truth, the Archangel Raziel would severally punish me if I told a mortal soul about a Heaven's Secret." He said.

"What are you really here for?" Cornelius asked.

"Your precious Leon is my Assassin." The two of them blinked and he had vanished.

"How the?"

"Best not to concern yourself with how he got away."

Sara allowed herself to fall onto the Sorcerer, tears fell from her face as she did so. She was clearly in distress. Wanting to be rescued, he could see why she was reacting like how she was. He held her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes, "I do not this fate wants you to be saved, Sara."

Pure shock and panic filled her eyes, "What...?" She struggled to get that out of her mouth.

Cornelius nodded sadly, "That was a creature who I have only seen a couple of times in my entire life. I saw one about two thousand years ago, she claimed to be the last one... Now I am not so sure..."

She gave him another confused look, "What is he?"

He was just about to speak, but the sound of footsteps filled his heart with slight panic. Quickly, he grabbed Sara and hid the two of them in the bedroom. He placed his finger to his lips, signalling her to stay quiet. However, the door burst open. Walter stood proudly at the frame.

"I thought I smelt a noisy male here." His dark voice filled the room.

Immediately, Walter recognised the Sorcerer and a sharp growl came from his mouth. He grabbed Cornelius around the neck, Sara skittered to the other side of the room in her fear. He placed something around his neck and gave a menacing smile.

"Another one for my collection..."

"Collection...? He is not an item!" Sara said.

He dropped Cornelius and he nearly landed on Kathleen. The Vampire came closer to Sara, sniffing her throat.

"He is going in my collection of loved ones that I have taken... So will you my dear."

 _'Have you learnt nothing from the creature that hunts you!'_ Joachim said to Walter.

He let out a deep growl in a relay as he bit Sara on the neck.

"No!"

Her crimson fell onto the floor, staining the carpet. He dropped her body on the floor, wiping his mouth of the red liquid that he had waited so long for him to obtain.

"Your loved one took too long. I grew tired of waiting for him." Walter said to her as Sara's last amount of consciousness vanished from her.

Cornelius gesture for the cat to vanish as Walter came and picked the Sorcerer up.

"What is the collar for?"

He smiled, "You like it? It is made of Alchemy. Your master made it for me, though it was not specifically made to capture you." He gave out another bellowing laugh, "It stops your magic from flowing in your body."

Cornelius gasped, "But that will kill me!"

"Eventually yes. I can kill you, my cat, mouse, Rinaldo and your master... then that creature who is hunting me."

"You will not be able to kill that creature."

"We will see..."


	13. Chapter 13- Dark Palace Of Waterfalls

Leon woke up feeling refreshed, he stretched his body out and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He had no idea how long he had been asleep for, mainly because a large black cloud of darkness still lay over the sky, a blanket of darkness. Rising to his feet, he picked up the Whip of Alchemy and walked out from the room. Rinaldo has prepared a small bowl of food for him. It was only chicken and rice, but he still appreciated his efforts. He smiled to the older man as he finished his meal and exited the cottage.

Upon him leaving, Rinaldo smiled to himself. Looking to his left to see a shadowy ram. The man cautiously bent down to fish out what it was holding in its mouth.

'She has been tainted, early hours of the morning...-Cain.'

"Oh Leon... You must tell him!"

The room nodded and vanished.

B1F

He appeared in an area that felt a little bit chilly to him. Definitely wasn't as warm as the rest of the castle. He started on a raised platform, similar to the one in the House of Sacred Remains. He walked down the small number of stairs and he was ambushed by three Skeletons. He killed them quickly, watching them scatter into a pile of bone dust. His eyes gazed around how massive the first room was, it was not like the gardens or the theatre, but it was still beautiful to look at. He took a look at the three pillars that were in the centre of the room, one at each corner of the square balcony that leads into the aqueduct. But why were there three? It's a square. He looked to his left and noticed that the first pillar had been left in a heap on the floor. In the middle of two pillars was a shining lit candle on a long golden stand. He started to walk, realising that the floor was stone, he was surprised that there wasn't any wild moss growing from the cracks between the stones.

The shadows started to move, he was ready to strike whatever sprouted from it.

A ram...

One of Cain's Shadow Creatures.

But he didn't use the flute, Leon scratched his head in confusion. The ram flashed up to the stairs, he wanted Leon to follow.

He made it to the raised door that too was a pointless platform. He stood through it and realised that his feet were going to get wet, though the ram was not bothered. The corridors had been completely flooded. He'd hate to see this place in the winter.

However, the water looked clean and fresh so he had no problem walking through it. Thankful it wasn't sewage water. He started to get his boots wet when two Fishmen fell from the ceiling, almost landing on him. He killed the ugly creatures and took the right path. Whenever an enemy would appear, the ram vanished back into the shadows, until they were defeated, then he would emerge near the door.

He came into another room that felt the need to keep him under a lock and key. Fishmen and Skeleton Swordsmen appears, he killed them, but more kept coming. They stopped coming after a while, but it had Leon worrying how many more would come and ambush him. He decided to continue going right, which took him to Fishmen and Mermen central, complete with a barred door. Quickly slaying the beasts, he carried on. His shoes were slowly becoming more and more sloppier as he trekked through the water. He half wondered if it was okay to drink, he was slowly becoming thirsty. However, monsters had been jumping around in it, so it probably wasn't a good idea to do so. He found himself in a room with a single Fleaman, he flung a knife at its head and walked to the door. He heard more footsteps, jumping ones. Quickly, he turned his body to see a horde of them. Bouncing with sharp butcher's knives in their tiny arms. He pulled some powerful sweeping whip combos to take care of as many as he could in one go. They lay dead in their own blood as Leon walked through the door. He took the path on the left, walked through another flooded corridor. Appearing in a room that had several floating Frost Swords and lots of Fishmen. The floating elemental swords were a joke, where they Demons or spirits possessing swords? He wasn't sure, but it didn't matter to him, they were already gone.

He soon came to a different room. It was darker than the other flooded corridors that he'd been in. So he knew he was going deeper into the area, probably further underground, he wasn't sure if there was a floor below him. He came into an even darker room, it was so hard to see in there. But the small light from a set of blue-flamed candles helped him. Smacking his foot on a pedestal, the ram started to give off a cry that sounded like a bar, but it sort of sounded like a small child screaming. He was trying to get Leon's attention to the leaver that he smacked his foot into, he grabbed it and pulled it backwards. The large wooden pistons began to stop, a piece of wood with a picture of a castle and a man rose up. After the Earth had rumbled for a bit.

The ram 'barrel' at the door, queuing him that they needed to leave.

He followed the ram back up to the room where the horde of Fleamen was. He cries again at the door to the left, Leon opened it and the ram vanished again. Bars came over the doors; an Axe Armour, Skeleton Swordsmen and Vassagos appeared. Leon had some difficulty dealing with all of them, but they eventually all fell to his whip. The ram reappeared with a map in its mouth. 'Dark Palace Of Waterfalls.'

"This will help so much, thank you." He patted the ram.

How did he pat it? Why did he just praise it? Questions for Cain when he decided to show his face later.

The two of them came to another large flooded room before coming to a massive room. Leon was stunned by now big the room was. It was surrounded by water that ran throughout the palace. Four beautiful Angel statues stood at the base of the central pillar, all holding lit candles.

The ram started crying at a set of stairs that lead further into the palace.

B2F

Somehow, the corridors had grown even darker. He couldn't see the ram that he had been following. A shining white light came from the ram. His body had become almost covered in creamy neon spiral markings. Around his eyes, legs, body and on strange wing-like parts of his wool that seemed to come from the top of his front legs. He was a bizarre Shadow Creatures, he hadn't attacked one monster, choosing to flee rather than fight. All the others would have ripped the monsters to shreds. He was a little too different.

They continue their trek down the right path where Leon had to kill a small number of Fleamen and Merman. He was getting sick of the darn Fleamen. The ram cried at the door that was straight ahead, Leon was putting far too much trust in the fluffy animal. Because it lead him to three giant swinging axes that hung from the ceiling. Leon was shocked to see them and the ram melted into the floor, ran under the axes and cried at the other end. Leo was determined to get passed them. He jumped over the first, backflipped over the second and rolled to the side of the last one. The ram was impressed. Though the last one didn't have as much of a swing as the other two, so it actually made it harder for Leon to pull that off. They came into another enclosed room; Heavy Amours and Frost Demons inhabited the area. They didn't get down without a proper fight, which was difficult for Leon since it was a five on one match since the ram didn't want to join in. Leon fought hard, killing all of them, landing in a pile of an out of breath mess. He gave him himself a moment to recover before heading right.

He could have sworn that the area that he was standing in was the same one where he started from. He was definitely beginning to question the ram's directional skills. However, he vanished. Leon felt a strange feeling like something was in his body. A deep purple shadow came from his feet and reformed itself to make...

Leon...

He gave several links to the copy that stood before him. He waved to it with his right and it returned it with its left. A mirror perhaps? He was not quite sure what it was, but it had a dark aura to it, so it was probably a Demon of some sorts. Leon pulled his whip tight, the Demon did the same.

Leon took the first attack, smacking it in the face, catapulting it back into the broken pillar. The Demon quickly rose to its feet, ready for its own assault. Leon finally got a taste of his own medicine. The whip hurt. It actually drew blood, which he wasn't expecting. He thought the Whip of Alchemy was only supposed to damage evil creatures. However, it was not the whip that he was using, it was an evil double of it. The Demon began to pull the same combos that Leon had been doing to the other monster that he had faced before it. Leon hoped that he didn't copy the method that he used to defeat Parasite. Strangely, the Demon's attacks were a fraction of a second faster than Leon's. Then the man went to attack, his opponent's whip would strike first. He had to be quicker if he wanted to win the battle of the Leons. The real Leon used a powerful sweeping combo, which the copy ducked, jumped and rolled to avoid the attack. He attempted again, but it backflipped out of the way. Leon wasn't even aware that he could evade attacks on such a manner and such speed. The copy did the same sweeping combo but placed a flicking crack at the end of the sequence. This new technique caught Leon off guard, smacking him into the wall of the area. Leon rose back up, pulling off a weaker combo, allowing the whip the trail in the air. Until the end, when he gave the whip a sudden flick of his wrist. Grappling onto his enemy, pulling it closer, releasing and ending with a dominating ground smash. The copy attacked again with another combo which sent Leon into the walls. The Demon smiled to him, taunting him to finish him off. He rose to that challenge, he placed half of the whip into a bottle of holy water. Pulling off a giant holy combo what burned the copy when the whip came into to contact with its skin. The whip moved a second too quickly for it to dodge out of the way.

Overwhelmed by the attack and from the burning of its skin, the Demon jumped over the balcony and into the waters that were below. Leon dashed up to the railing to see it, but the Demon had vanished. The ram reappeared beside Leon as he collapsed in a tired heap. But he needed to continue, it was for Sara. The ram vanished again, reappearing with a note in its mouth, he took it from its mouth and gazed at it.

"She has been tainted? Early hours of the morning?- Cain...! What is that supposed to mean?" Leon read.

The ram shrugged his shoulders, even he didn't know what his master mean by that.

"We best get going."

The ram nodded.


	14. Chapter 14- Is This The End?

Chapter 14 Is this the End?

Sadly, Leon failed to rise. That last battle took quite a great deal of strength out of him. The ram jumped off the exit and came to the round warrior's side. He rubbed his wool on the wounds that the human had. Strangely, it felt nice to have the soft fluffy wool against his aching body. After a while of stroking through the black wool, Leon felt better. Was it all in his head? Or was he really better? He looked back at the wounds that were made from the Demon, there was no scaring. The little ram was incredible.  
"How do you like Heiwa?" A familiar voice said.  
Cain. He flicked his hand over his body to dispel the shadows that were cloaking him.  
"Heiwee?"  
Cain smiled, "Meaning peace. He is my Guiding Ram, a member of my twelve Zodiac Shadows."  
The ram went straight back to his master's side. Leon was confused as to what Cain meant.  
"Are they special Shadow Creatures?"  
"Of sorts, they are the strongest. I created these lot. The others are rogue shadow beings creatures out of the darkness of Hell. These were created by my own strength, with the assistance of Lucifer to give them different abilities. Heiwa has Shadow and Light magic. He can cure you of any illness and injury as well as help you find your way in the darkness."  
Leon smiled, "He sure is helpful, but why will he not attack?"  
"He is pacifist, prefers to avoid fights." He knelt down to Heiwa and gave him a stroke, hugging onto him, "That just makes him cute."  
"Will they come to the Shadow Flute?"  
Cain shook his head, "Any rogue shadow that is near will come to the flute. Once summoned, you are their master until the enemy is destroyed. The Zodiac Shadows answer to one master."  
"That is you."  
"They also last for longer, they will not vanish with one hit."  
He spread his wings out and Heiwa rubbed himself against Cain's right wing.  
Leon thought for a moment, having a companion around made him feel less like he was on the edge of a cliff, waiting for the monsters to push him off. Apart of him wanted to keep Heiwa with him, he felt safe. Cain gave a smile.  
"He keeps me safe too... though you are better off with my Rooster if you want actual protection."  
Leon looked at the Demon, their eyes met, "Keep him for now."  
Leon's eyes lit up, hope had returned to him. Cain rose up from the ground, "Since you have the Shadow Flute, Heiwa and the others have accepted you, they believe that we have formed an alliance."  
"Alliance?... I guess we have...You have been a massive help."  
"I might as well introduce you to the twelve."  
Cain cuffed his hands and made a loud cooing sound, it took a few moments but all of the animals appeared out from the shadows. They crept along the walls, cackling and laughing as they took shape. A large viper was the first to come out from the wall, probably touching around seven foot long. With aqua blue markings on its body that ran all the way down it.  
"This is Kaiyō, my Drowning Viper. She can make any land mammal breath underwater. Very useful for a midnight swim."  
She bowed her head at Leon and he did it in return.  
A tiny rat scuttled its way onto Kaiyō's back and up onto her face.  
"Yoru, the Deadly Rat. Do not stroke her. She is covered in poison that is similar to Deadly Nightshade. Though I can touch her."  
"So do not underestimate the small creatures."  
A sound that was almost like a horse's cry filled the room. With such speed, a horse came charging in. With spiral sky blue markings on its face and body. The same bizarre fur patterns on the horse as Heiwa, though they looked almost like wings.  
"Kaze, the Storming Horse. He is capable of running at the speed of sound to create tornadoes and manipulate the wind."  
Leon was impressed with him. However, he could have sworn that he saw two rabbits on Kaze's back. No four?  
"Cut that out!" Cain ordered.  
The multiple rabbits returned back to a single one, which Leon was glad about. It had bright pink markings and those patterns again.  
"Torikkí, the Illusionary rabbit. She is my entertainer, loves to put on shows for Luci and myself."  
Strangely, the room began to drop in temperature as an ox appeared. Leon was stunned at his size and the blue mist that came from him. His markings were an icy blue colour.  
"Shimo, the Zero Ox. He can change the atmosphere around him to freeze his foes. Though he will not do it now."  
Cain was one hundred per cent regretting his decision to allow them all to come, it was taking forever. Then again, so was Leon's journey.  
An explosion came out of nowhere, a boar came out from the ash, like a Phoenix it revived itself. Leon could not believe what he was seeing.  
"Bakuhatsu, or just Baku. The Raging Boar. Capable of hearing his body to extreme temperatures and he ignites his whole body and explodes like a firework."  
"What? Does it hurt?"  
"No him."  
"Oh..."  
"Fun to watch though."  
The sound of laughter was heard throughout the room and a monkey appeared, giggling away to itself on the back of Kaze.  
"Ah, Warai. The Nutcracker Monkey. She laughs at anything, even the simplest jokes."  
"What can she do?"  
"Oh, create whips from vines."  
"I love how she will not stop laughing."  
"Yes... but it can get annoying."  
Something poked Leon, a tiger. He jumped at the sight and the animal joined the others.  
"Kage, the Stealth Tiger. She got you."  
"Her name says it all," Leon said still recovering from the shock.  
A flamed mane wolf appeared it was fast. With the same marking as the others, it howled o the sky.  
"Kasai, the Spying Wolf. If she is spotted, then prepare for a burn that will hit for around one thousand degrees."  
"Ouch..."  
A rooster appeared next to Kage, she Of its feathers were died pink, along with its markings.  
"Good day to ya master Cain." The bird spoke.  
Leon's eyes widened to the Scottish chicken, "What?"  
"Oh yes, he can talk."  
"How?"  
"He is more intelligent than the average human."  
"What?"  
"Meet Reikon, the Protecting Rooster."  
"I keep my master safe from any harm with my psychic abilities and barriers."  
Leon was still shocked over the fact that he could talk.  
The last one arrived, a giant dragon. The majority of its markings were yellow, but they changed colour, swapping from neon blue back to yellow. It was a slow but beautiful transition. Rakurai, the Phantom Dragon. The strongest of all of my Zodiac Shadows. Blasting powerful bolts of lightning... oooh it is so fun to let him loose."  
"So what are we doing here master?" Rakurai said.  
Leon sort of half expected the dragon to be capable of speech, but not the bloody chicken.  
"Some is you will be accompanying Mr Belmont here."  
"Obviously, Heiwa is going." The chicken said.  
"Yes, and Rei."  
"What? Why me?" The chicken squeaked.  
"He can only have the smaller Shadows with him, otherwise the dark power will taint his soul."  
"And we can't have that."  
"Good I am glad that you are on board."  
"Fabulous." He said as the monkey started another fit of laughter.  
The other Zodiac beasts melted into the shadows and Cain gave a smile to them.  
"Good luck." Their Master said.

Heiwa lead the three of them back up to the room where Leon defeated the Heavy Amours. He cried at the south door, willing them to go the way that he wanted. The rooster sighed as Leon opened the door. Another long flooded corridor. Leon noticed that Heiwa wasn't taking leading them to the door on the left. He didn't understand why.  
"It is because the room doesn't have what we need to progress."  
The bird read Leon's mind, he didn't really know how he felt about that.  
"That little fluff ball can track dark auras, right now he's tracking Walter's. Following where the Vamp has been so we can get to the monster."  
Leon was still confused.  
"The bridge that lead to the monster was up and there is a waterfall blocking the way. This whole palace is like a prison."  
"Ah..."  
"Get it now pretty boy?"  
Leon nodded.  
"Good."  
A giant roar filled the area, a Cyclops. Leon was in no mood to fight it, both of the Shadow beasts melted into the floor, leaving Leon magically defenceless. He dodged around the beast and it began to chase him down the corridor. Leon dashed away from the beast, on a sharp decision he went down the left path. With haste, he opened the door and slamming it. Hearing a massive smack as it hit the stone wall with its face. He let out a deep breath and turned around to see another one.  
The barred door...  
He had no choice. What kind of man would he be if he ran away from a monster that he easily took down in the past? He leapt up into the air, smashing his whip hard onto the monster's face. He was ready to fight it now. He landed behind it and gave it another strong whip combo to its back. It screamed in the pain as Leon brought it to its knees. Jabbing a knife into its neck, it fell to the ground.  
"Nice one kid." The rooster said.  
They continued to find another leaver, Leon yanked it and the earth rubbled again. The giant pistons stopped moving and the jar that was in the middle of them rose up.  
"There goes the waterfall, you ready kid?"  
Leon nodded, "I do not expect Heiwa to fight, but will you stand beside me?"  
He couldn't believe that he was relying on a chicken.  
He thought for a moment, "I guess so. I don't see why not. Master sent me with you for a reason and I trust his judgment."  
"Okay, thank you. Let us return to the upper floor."

B1F

Leon trekked all the way back up to where he started, it was obvious where he had to go, Heiwa didn't need to tell him. However, he was grateful for the ram. He wouldn't have to know how to have solve the method to get to the monster's lair without him. Plus his illumination skills. He forced his way passed the Frost Demons, Frost Swords, Mermen and Fishmen that got in his way.  
He soon came to another room that had axes swinging from the ceiling, he was quick to dodge passes them and continue on. He took the right door and came to another Angel statue room, he could sense the monster that lay beyond him. It was powerful,

he could sense its dark energy.  
He went through the door and became mesmerised by the massive chasm that they had ended up in. The cliffs were a greenish colour, from their age and the water that rushed passed them. The bridge that Reikon spoke about earlier, he realised that it had the potential to move up. He noticed the three holes over the door that would have prevented him from entering. With all that out of the way, he entered the room.

It was dark in the room that he entered, he could barely see anything. He could see the moist pillars of rock that were near him, but nothing more. The young man still sensed the dark aura, "Hello? Is someone down here?"  
He heard the sound of something moving, "Are you a prisoner?"

...

"Who are you?" A voice finally spoke.  
"I am Leon, this is Heiwa and Reikon."  
"Shadow Creatures? Cain's by any chance...?"  
The ram gave a cry, "I thought so... I knew Cain and that Death Bringer was involved..."  
"Death Bringer? What are they involved in?"  
"I informed Walter that an assassin of the Angel of Death was coming for him. Cain is assisting to make sure that it happens by extending his services to you."  
"What? That is outlandish!"  
"Really? Why else would Cain assist you?"  
"Why doesn't he and this assassin kill Walter themselves? I am sure they have the power."  
"IT IS THAT DARN BARRIER!"  
"From the Ebony Stone? A voice told me that."  
"The psychic Incubus, Magnus..."  
"Just who are you? That Demon showed me a vision of you trying to kill Walter."  
The other man growled, giving out a sharp hiss. Leon froze...  
"You are, a Vampire?"  
"Very perceptive boy, my name is Joachim Armster."  
"Walter's lieutenant?"  
"And a lover," Reikon said.  
"What?"  
"Yep, Walter kicked Magnus out of his life. He wanted someone new to love, so he managed to find you at your father's funeral and pluck your innocent human life away from you. Heiwa! Give us some light."  
The ram disobeyed, moving his head to the side, ignoring the rooster.  
"What? Really..." he sighed.  
"Heiwa please, I wish to put an end to his suffering and save Sara."  
The ram did as Leon asked, his cream markings illuminated the room, lighting the room so much that Joachim gave another hiss at the sudden amount of it.  
"Fine, I shall kill you, Leon. Once I do, Walter is mine."

The Vampire levitated into the air, a bunch of swords pulled themselves out from the ground and started to spiral around Joachim. Leon attempted to whip his foe with a powerful sweeping combo, but his attack bounced right off. The Vampire gave out an echoing laugh, the sound rebounded off jagged rocks.  
"Sneaky thing, found a way to mimic the Ebony Stone, have we? I don't think so, lad."  
Reikon's markings began to glow a bright shade of pink. Three white orbs that were around the room shattered under his power. Joachim fell to the ground in a heap, as his barrier shattered.  
"Nice try." The rooster said.  
The Vampire still had all of his powers though. He flew back into the air and licked his lips as he did so. He waved his hand, commanding his swords to attack Leon. With amazing reflexes, Leon managed to dodge out of the way before any of the swords could hit him. Well almost all of them. The final one badly slashed his arm. Blood began to pour from it, he held the wound for a moment and rose to his feet. It was clear that Joachim hadn't fed in a while. His eyes were almost black, he carefully watched the blood seeped out of Leon's hands. He took this moment to snap his whip at the Vampire, catapulting him into a jagged rock. Joachim woke up from his daze, floating back up from his hurt position, he flung his swords at Leon. He allowed his body to come with the attack as the swords came crashing down on their opponent. Leon dodged out of the way again, giving Joachim another crack combo from his whip. His weapon just wasn't strong enough yet and this was the last monster he had to face before Walter. Leon grew nervous, he wanted to win so he could have Sara back, but he didn't think the whip would cut it...  
The old legend, he needed to stake the Vampire.  
"You do not think that I too can read your mind? You are like an open book."  
Leon didn't expect that...  
Joachim gave another his and vanished behind Leon, slashing him with a blade. The man fell down in the pain as the Vampire gave a smile. He came down to Leon, his blades pointed at the man's body, ready to impale him.  
A sudden pain came to Joachim as his blades fell to the ground. He looked down to see that Leon, had impaled him first.  
"This can not be, happening...It is too soon for me to, meet my end." blood came from the Vampire's mouth.  
He let out a sharp cough...  
Leon looked down, away from the Vampire's grieving eyes, "Tell me, what is Cain and that assassin planning?"  
"Something, that you would not, understand."  
"Try me." He said boldly.  
"Chrono... they are helping him. To fix this world."  
"What? How do you know of this?"  
"Magnus... He is actually from, a different Timeline all together. However, Walter knows this and is hoping that he can change what Chrono has planned out by killing you."  
"That is impossible! He can not fight death. Then, I am going to win against him?"  
"At a great cost, dear child..."  
His body turned fell into his arms, motionless. He turned to ash and his remains became the Green Orb. Leon grabbed the Orb and headed back to Rinaldo's cottage.

As he entered, Rinaldo could see that seeds of doubt had been placed in his heart. He sighed as the chicken flew onto his counter.  
"What!?"  
"Do not ask, he is with Cain."  
"Says it all that does, Leon you are hurt let me he-"  
Rinaldo noticed the ram's glowing green markings as Leon's wounds slowly began to not back together.  
"What is the matter? That was the last monster. You should be happy."  
Leon sighed, "I am, but I am not sure that I should face him."  
"What do you mean?"  
"The whip barely did anything to Joachim... I only killed him through technique."  
"And that would not work on Walter, he wears armour."  
Leon slammed his head on the counter, placing his hands on his head, he wanted to scream to let out his frustration.  
"It will be alright Leon." He placed his hand over Leon's shoulder, "Sara needs you."  
Leon rose up, "You are right. She does."  
Heiwa gave a cry, the man bent down to him, stroking his head, "Thank you for healing me. Can you both accompany me for one last battle?"  
Heiwa gave a happy cry in agreement.  
"The Master has not called me back yet, so count me in."  
"Leon, take this." Rinaldo held the White Bishop in his hand, "It is a Relic, it will create a barrier around you, decreasing the amount to damage enemies will do to you, think of it like you are wearing armour."  
Leon took it from Rinaldo's hand, gave a nod as he left  
"Good luck Leon..."


	15. Chapter 15- Vampire Killer!

With the magical Relic, the White Bishop in hand. Leon returned to the castle for what he hopped to be the final time. As he entred the castle, the magical barrier vanished, allowing him to pass through it. Sara was just beyond that door. The ram entered first, Leon then the rooster. The area was large, not much was in the room besides a fountain and a balcony. Again it was quite dark, but Heiwa chose not to illuminate the room. Leon didn't understand why, but he just assumes that the ram was sensing something coming. Now that he thought about it, there was definitely a dark aura in the air. He sensed something similar to when he was in the Dark Palace Of Waterfalls, Joachim. A Vampire was near. He was sure of it. The dark presence was almost similar, but not the same. He looked around for a moment. The whole area felt off, the dark aura came from a number of different locations. It was almost overwhelming to Leon. He wanted to collapse on the floor, his mind felt hazy. His heart rate increased, so did his nerves.  
Crash!  
Purple lightning struck the top of the balcony. A ginger man in armour stood with a smile on his face.  
"Walter Bernhard..." Leon said.  
"Oh so you know of me... I did not expect this." His voice boomed and echoed throughout the room, which made him ever so more threatening to Leon.  
"No thanks to your chained beast."  
Leon heard a slight growl from the Vampire.  
"That bastard! How dare he!? No matter."  
"Give back Sara!" Leon suddenly yelled.  
Walter smiled, seeing his dispare gave him so much joy. However, he noticed the two Shadow Beasts and a short shocked expression came to his face.  
"Cain...Where is you master beast?"  
"What's it to you!?" Reikon said flapping his wings.  
"Call your master here and I will release this man's lover."  
Leon gave a growl, but stood down. If it was the only way, "Heiwa, call Cain."  
At first, the ram shook his head, refusing to summon his master. The shake was panicked too, he was afraid of what Walter would do to Cain. The Demon may be the left hand to Lucifer, but that barrier that Walter had prevented most attacks from hurting him, Cain was no exception. Leon was also worried about Cain, he was a Demon, the son of Adam and Eve. One of the strongest in hell, but Leon still had the right to care for his safety.  
"What do you want with him?" Leon demanded.  
Walter gave a single chuckle, "I only wish to ask him a few questions. That is all."  
"Sara first."  
A second chuckle crossed him, "Very well."  
He flicked his long dull crimson cape up and Sara appeared when it came back down.  
"Sara..."  
He couldn't believe that it her. After all this time, all the fighter, all the struggle. Finally, his eyes could gaze upon her true beauty. Not a Succubus in disguise this time.  
"Now give her back."  
"Cain first, you are in no position to make demands here tiny human. You are forgetting who rules over this castle."  
"Heiwa."  
Again the ram refused to summon Cain. Leon looked towards Reikon, who shook his head. Also refusing to summon his master. The two of them had a bad feeling about what was going to happen. However, Leon wanted Sara back. He pulled out the Shadow Flute, gave it a single blow, a shadow deer appeared. It reared back on its hind legs like a horse as it came from the floor. It was ready for battle, it scrapped its hooves on the carpet.  
"Fetch Cain." Leon ordered.  
It vanished away.  
Walter gazed at the small 'flute' that Leon held. It was more like a whistle than a flute, only really being able to play a single note. Well, that's what Walter heard. However, the Shadow Creatures had a hearing range that was ten times better than Werewolf, which is five times better than a Vampire's. Shadow Beasts had the clearest hearing throughout the supernatural species. It was a no brainer why Cain wanted them as his protectors.  
A shadow appeared behind Walter. The familiar crimson eyes, the large wings and the misty tail. It all sent chills down Leon's spin. Cain revealed himself from his shadow, sending it to the wall. His tail wrapped around him as he gave a smile. Quickly, Walter grabbed Cain around the neck, gutting him with a Holy dagger. The Vampire held its handle with a thick cloth, to prevent it from burning him. Cain let out a painful cry as the blade not only burnt his skin, but his insides too.  
"What are you and that Death Bringer planning?"  
Cain let one eye open, "Death... Bringer?"  
"Do not play dumb with me Cain, you even got my Incubus in on the fun."  
Cain let out a mighty laugh, "If you wished to life, I would not have abducted the girl."  
Walter growled.  
Leon leapt into the air and attempted to attack Walter. But the whip bounced off the barrier and Leon landed on the ground.  
"Well that was a failed attempt."  
"Why did it not work?"  
"That is Rinaldo's Whip is it not? A fine failure that was."  
"Shi, attack."  
His shadow came off the wall, dived into the floor and grabbed Walter's shadow. Upon the surprise, the Vampire dropped Cain, but the blade was still in his gut. The shadow kept Walter on the ground as Cain grabbed Sara. He flew off the balcony with the girl in his arms. Leon and the two Shadow Beasts followed as Cain flew out the door. Cain placed Sara down just outside the door that led to the upper floors. His whole body lay limp as his blood poured from his wound.  
Sara opened her eyes.  
"Sara..."  
"Leon... Is that you?"  
The man nodded, "You are safe." He gave her a well deserved hug.  
Heiwa gave a loud worried cry as Cain collapsed. Leon was shocked that the Demon fell to such a simple attack. Then again the blade was probably blessed by a priest or drenched in holy water, so he wasn't surprised by that. Leon grabbed the handle of the blade and yanked it out of Cain.  
"Heiwa."  
The ram had already started to heal him, but the rooster was not happy.  
"How could you let this happen?"  
"You are the psychic bird, why did you not see it coming?"  
"It was a necessary feat." Cain said as his eyes opened, "To save your lover."  
"You had to injure yourself? I am so sorry."  
"Do not worry yourself. Samiel already informed me of the risk of helping Leon."  
"Samiel?" The man said.  
Cain nodded as Heiwa finished healing his master, "An Angel."  
"An Angel came to a Demon?"  
"Leon can we get out of here?" Sara said.  
Her lover nodded and Leon helped her to her feet. Cain rose to his and the group escaped.

Leon lead Sara back to Rinaldo's cottage. Upon getting near to it, Sara was struck with lightning and fell unconscious. Leon looked over her with a confused and worried look on his face. Cain gave a slight smile.  
"What?... You knew that this would happen?"  
"Little bit."  
"What is going on?"  
"It is Sara! She, and then lightning."  
Calm Leon, do not stress over this." Cain said as he melted into the floor to bypass the barrier, his shadow friends did the same.  
"Get inside!" Rinaldo ordered.  
"But Sara..."  
"Inside!"  
Leon did as he was told.  
Rinaldo puzzled over the girl's body for a moment.  
"She is dead."  
"Tainted, yes I know."  
"I told you the before, on that note. I guess you ignored it."  
Rinaldo let out a sigh, "I do not want this now Demon, be gone."  
"Excuse me?"  
"Do as I say."  
"I do not think you know who you are talking to. The girl is dead, there is nothing you can do for her."  
"There is... your ram."  
Cain gave out a laugh, "You expect me to help you now. Heck no."  
"Cain..."  
"Nope, up to this point, Leon is no longer allowed to have my assistance."  
"What? Why? And now of all times!"  
"This is as far as they allowed either of us to intervene."  
Rinaldo gave him a confused look.  
"Think of all of this as a staged performance. Certain events were meant to happen. But Samiel and I were sent to assure that they happened how they were meant to. The events are in no threat of changing of the course that has been set out for them. Translation, I can leave."  
"Cain..."  
He stopped for a moment with Heiwa at his feet.  
"Save her."  
"...No."  
He vanished away.  
The ram could have saved her, it had the ability to cure any disease in the world. Including Vampirism. Leon was not going to be pleased. He picked up Sara's body, it was stone cold, the change had already begun. He carried her round the back of the cottage and left her there to rest. He retired to Leon through the back door.  
"How is Sara?"  
"Sleeping in the back."  
"Good."  
"What happened?"  
Rinaldo gave a deep sigh, he didn't want to tell the news to the young man, "The barrier... It responded."  
"Will she be okay?"  
"No you fool." He snapped, "That girl has been tainted by the Vampire."  
Leon couldn't believe his ears. His heart sunk to the bottom pits of his chest. He didn't want to believe what Rinaldo was saying.  
"No your are lying!"  
"Why would I lie to you?"  
"Please tell me that you are lying!"  
He took another sigh, "She is not a Vampire as of yet. She has about an hour."  
"An hour! Is there any way to save her? A potion or something."  
Rinaldo shook his head, "She is beyond the assistance of a potion. She would have needed to take that with in the first three hours of the bite."  
"What else can we do?"  
"Our only way to help her was that ram."  
"Oh Heiwa? I can get him."  
Leon pulled out the Shadow Flute and blew it, but the ram didn't appear. A small snake did.  
"Get Heiwa please."  
The snake shook its head and snatched the flute from Leon's hand.  
"Hey!"  
It vanished before he could grab he flute.  
"No!"  
"That is that."  
A tear fell down Leon's face, "Is there anything else we can do?"  
"She still has time, you must defeat Walter immediately."  
"But the Whip has no effect on him."  
Rinaldo gave out a stressful sigh, "I did not work for you either."  
"Is there another way?"  
"You are not going to like it. How badly do you want to defeat Walter?"  
"I will do anything!"  
"You will regret those words, tell me. Can you kill that girl?"  
Leon blinked several times. Shock came to him, almost losing his footing as he stepped a few steps back.  
"I..."  
"If you make the whip complete. Then you can destroy him. In order to do that you need a tainted soul... one that trusts you and that you trust..."  
"I gave up everything for Sara... No I could not."  
"Given that she is no longer human, she is your lover. It is difficult, I understand."  
"Is she really..."  
"The bite mark confirms it..."  
Leon could sense it now, a faint dark aura came from the back room, but it moved. The a sudden sound.  
"Sara..."

She was outside with a knife to her throat.  
"Sara, calm down."  
"Please stay away!" She cried pulling the knife closer.  
"How much of that did you hear?"  
"All of it..."  
"Sara I... I will save you. I promise, I will do what ever it takes to do so."  
"I appreciate your efforts, but... I fear I have no time left."  
"No time?"  
"I feel myself changing, my heart grows weaker by the second and my blood runs cold... If my souls can save others, then I will not die in vain... I do not wish for anyone else to share my fate."  
"Sara... Please do not do this."  
"Please, if your love for me is true, the grant me my final wish."  
"I cannot..."  
"You dishonour yourself. Do you not see how Sara feels? She does not wish for this, but she wishes to-"  
"I know Rinaldo!" Tears ran down his face.  
"Oh Leon... so what you think is right..."  
"All that is needed is your resolve..." Rinaldo said.  
Sara gave a quick prayer to her Lord before looking back into Leon's eyes, "I will always be with you."  
Leon stood straight, "Rinaldo, what must I do?"  
Rinaldo gave a smile, "Good, so you have decided. You must enter a blood covenant with Sara's soul." Rinaldo moved to the side of the two of them, "Focus your spirit on Sara."  
Leon closed his eyes.  
Rinaldo put his arms out "All become one in infinity. The tainted soul joins his. Undesired and cursed soul, His blood accepts your hatred. For the power to slay your kind. Now, use the whip on Sara!"  
"I sware to you, no more will suffer your fate."  
He lunches the whip at his beloved, her she gave out a cry.  
"Thank you...Leon..."  
Her body fell to the ground, as it did, pinky coloured orbs surrounded the whip. It shone in a bright pink light for a second. Leon allowed his body to touch the ground. Tears fell to the earth, "Saaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrraaaaaa!"  
He screamed as reality hit him, to what he had just done. Sara was gone.  
Only Vampire Killer, remained.


	16. Chapter 16- Pagoda of the Misty Moon

Leon returned for the final time to the castle with vengeance in his heart. He was going to avenge Sara and destroy Walter. Everything that he'd done, the man couldn't forgive him. But why did he have I pick Sara as his mouse? Of all the girls in the village why her. He'd never know the answer to his questions.

1F

He entered through the door that was once sealed by the five monsters and gazed upon where Walter was standing. Now he gave it a proper look, the balcony wasn't that far off the ground. He could easily jump up there. His eyes looked down at the rug that lay flat on the floor. It was grey, a little dusty and had four Skeletons dragons placed at the four corners. Strange engravings were littered on the wall to the balcony where Walter stood, he could make out the dinosaur skills but nothing more. Three iron knight statues were placed back against the walls, Leon kept thinking that they would come to like and attack him. But thankfully they didn't. He wandered up the stairs and saw axes on the walls, six on each side of the door that he was about to go through. Before opening the door, he noticed small Angel statues at the top of the stairs. He ignored them and moved on. He trekked down the long dark corridor and found himself in another room full of lasers. The beams had a red and white stream to them, they looked powerful, but there was only two of then. Leon dodged passed the first and jumped over the second. However, the floor collapsed underneath him, he managed to grasp the ledge before he fell. He carried on through the door after pulling his weight back up to safety. He dodged passed the pair Spartacuses that tried to kill him. He entered the next room, it was large and the floors were so clean that he could see his reflection in them. Something felt off, he could sense another dark aura. No, it was the same aura, he'd felt it before. The mirror Demon had returned. The Demon masked with Leon's face gave a large smile. Leon was not happy to see it again.  
They fought in the Dark Palace Of Waterfalls, it got the best of him and escaped.  
"Not this time Demon! I will slay you!"  
The Demon attacked first, cracking its unholy whip at Leon. The man ducked under its attack, flicking its own around the beast's side. It let out a large cry as the hold whip burnt its skip upon impact. Using a combination of the Green Orb and holy water, Leon threw a ball of holy water that hit the Demon then split on the floor, creating hot roaring blue flames. The Demon was trapped in a holy fire created by the blessed water. It could feel its skin burning as it tried to escape from the fire. Leon cracked his whip at the Demon, catapulting it out of the flames, which were already beginning to die down. The Demon was impressed that the man had indeed improved since their last encounter, the sting from his whip was ever so more painful. However, the Demon gave a smile, it knew that Leon would fall to its feet. The blond male stood ready as is opponent leapt into the air and used the same attack on him that Leon just did. The crimson unholy flames surrounded Leon, attempting to burn him, but they had no effect. This confused the Demon. Leon walked out from the fire and a glow came from his index finger on his right hand. The Ring Of Fire... Cain said that it would come in handy. Though the ring would only protect him from the flames for about half a minute it was more than enough time to allow it to completely nullify the attack and allow Leon time to escape.  
The Demon grew angered at this, releasing a massive swooping attack from his whip. It collided with Leon's cheek, knocking him back in a spiral mess. A laugh came from the back of the Demon's throat as Leon rose back to his feet. He got up quickly and flung another holy fire attack, Flame Sparks. Once again, the Demon became consumed by the fire. Pain courses throughout its body as it screamed. Leon cracked the whip on his foe's body. However, the flames died down and the beast was freed, leaving Leon vulnerable. He was still in mid-combo and he didn't see it coming.  
Blood poured out from Leon. The man was shocked as he felt the dagger being yanked out of him and the blood seeping out from the wound. An echoing laugh came from the beast. Leon took a few moments to recover and rose back to his feet. Shock smacked the Demon in the face as he watched the mortal rise to his feet.  
"For Sara!"  
He dropped a bottle of holy water onto the ground, the contents of it spilt out allowing blue fire to emerge from its glass. Engulfing the Demon in its holy grasp, he allowed his dagger to be consumed by the fire, before stabbing the beast's heart.  
"Go back...to the pit that spawned you!"  
The holy fire fizzled out and the Demon burst into a death of its own fire.  
Leon collapsed to the ground in a pool of his own blood. The clean crystal clear floor was just a sea of blood.  
'Place your blooded hand on the whip.'  
He managed to do as the Incubus asked. The whip began to glow in white light, bringing hope to Leon's soul.  
"How did you-?" He said weakly.  
'Your descendant, Richter used it against another Lord of this castle. This enchanting ability has been gifted to your kin Leon. Use it well.'  
The glow on the whip began to dim as the Demon finished speaking.  
Leon heard a familiar cry.  
Heiwa!  
The mortal was so pleased that his eyes were able to gaze upon the ram once again. He'd grown quite fond over him.  
"I could not leave you to die," Cain said.  
Heiwa used his healing abilities to force Leon's wounds to shut, preventing the blood from escaping his body.  
The man sat up, "I thought you had left me..."  
Cain shrugged, "You were not meant to fall here. Samiel and I decided that one last push was necessary. Though no help will come from anyone when you face Walter. You face Walter alone, with no assistance."  
"Including that Demon?"  
Cain nodded, "Magnus is fully aware of the events that can not be changed. You need to fight him by yourself."  
"To prove my love to you, Sara... I understand now Cain. Thank you, for everything that you have done."  
The Demon bowed his head, "It was my pleasure to assist a man of God."  
"Maybe you might get back in his good grace?"  
Cain gave a short snicker, "I doubt that one."  
He vanished in the shadows of whence he came. Never to be seen again by Leon's eyes. Which was a shame, he might actually miss that Demon.

He continued to dodge passed the enemies that attempted to kill him. All was going well until the iron bars sprung up from the ground blocking the doors. He defeated the pair of Phantoms that appeared, the new version of the whip made all of the enemies a breeze to kill. He had Sara's noble sacrifice to thank for that.  
Another laser room, only it was more like a short maze. Four lasers blasted out powerful beams and he knew that he couldn't jump over them. He ran passed the first, the second, waited a moment for the third as he hid behind a barricade and he quickly dashed passed the final one.  
Stairs...  
He really didn't want there to be upstairs, but he had to. He assumed that Walter would be hiding behind a locked or magically sealed door like some of the other monsters that he faced. Run around the area until he has found 'X' item to unlock the door. He just had that feeling that that was the case. He stamped up the stairs, being cautious of the statues that he though was waiting Axe Armours.

2F

The upstairs was similar to the floor below, only the lighting gave it a greenish tint. Even the small lit candles that were on the wall were a green colour. He took the door to his left, ignoring the long corridor. Lizard Knights and Phantoms attacked him, but they were no match for his strength. He ran down another corridor dodging passed all the monsters, who tried to take a swing for him. He took the left path again, but he did feel like he was travelling in a circular motion. He continued going in the same direction until the bars sprung up. He found himself in a room with massive Centaur statues carrying large spears. A small group of Spartacus tried to kill him, dead. Their body parts were catapulted all over the place.  
Eventually, he came to a second Centaur statue room. Only this time, a pair of Dullahan stood in his way. They were a little tricky to beat, Leon was surprised that they could attack him since they had no heads.  
He came to the door on his right, after being chased by a Gaap. A strange tablet lay on the table in front of yet another sealed door. It had 'VI' inscribed on it, nothing on the back.  
'Take it down the corridor that lead... to the lower floor.'  
"Who is there!?" The voice was familiar, "That Demon..."  
'Yes.' Magnus didn't sound that strong, almost like most of his strength was being used to contact Leon, 'Go!'

Leon followed his instruction and returned to where the stairs were to the lower floor. He dashed down the corridor, dodging any of the monsters that opposed him. More iron bars appeared around the door to the west. The floor was attacking him? Large candleholders were placed throughout the large room, it was some sort of puzzle. However, Leon dashed over o the open door and he tried not to get killed by the darn floor. Two giant Red Ogres roared as he closed the door behind him. It was one next death trap to the next. He fled passed them by rolling under the right one's legs and heading to the door. The pair stomped down the corridor as they failed to catch up to him.  
The room that he entered was massive, easily the largest room in the castle. It was bright, thanks to the candlelight and Leon actually felt a little free. Giant statues stood beside him, wielding axes and shields in their hands, Leon was amazed at how grand they looked. However this was all ruined by the sealed door that was at the end of the room, that was where Walter was waiting for him. He put it to the back of his mind for now and entered through the left door. He placed the tablet into a strange table with a switch. He pulled on it, waited a moment and the tablet flicked over with 'IV.' However, he was certain that there was nothing on the back before... He had no time to ponder over it.  
He reached back down to the room where he found it, placed it into the slave. It was being kept up by a pair of Angel statues and it had what looked like old numbers inscribed onto it; I, II, III, ..., V. After placing the IV tablet into it, the seal on the door shattered. He walked inside and obtained the Dragon Crest.  
Quickly, he returned back to the large room with the giant axe statues.  
He was ready to face Walter.


	17. Chapter 17- The Final Battle

Silence...  
An extremely long set of stairs awaited him. He could see where Walter was waiting for him. Pounding in his chest was his heart, bashing against the sides of his lungs as it raced missing the beats. Nerves began to overtake him, he really didn't want to do it. He could die. However, Sara's vengeance was worth the potential death wish. Lightning stuck across the field of ominous clouds, making him jump slightly at the sound of them. The carpet that he stepped on was more like a crimson red line of fabric. Another item that Leon didn't understand what its purpose was. But he didn't care, he was too close to his final goal. The violent wind blew, forcing his hair into his eyes, it and the lightning was the only thing that broke the silence. As he drew closer to the top, he noticed red flags that blew in the strong wind. They were attached to the pillars of the stone banister. Once at the top, he had a strange feeling that he was floating, he could have sworn that there was nothing holding the Keep up. Using the Dragon Crest he stepped inside.  
The area was stupidly large, painted goldish colour and so was the floor. Dull red curtains hung from the windows and Walter sat in front of a large amount of stain glass windows. He was slouching in his thrown as Leon walked in, he readjusted himself to a more presentable look.  
"I am so glad that you made it."  
Leon gave a growl and gritted his teeth.  
"Strange too, I was not expecting this since I smelt a potent scent of your blood."  
"Walter...I will never forgive you for what you have done!"  
"I did not think you would."  
"And now I have the power to stop you."  
He gave a snicker, "You think so?"  
"I know so."  
The Vampire gave a smile, "Confident I see, well then." He rose from his seat, "I guess that gift that you stole from me helped you."  
"Yes, you will see how strong I have become."  
"That power, it is interesting. However, you have overlooked the fact that I am loved by the night."  
"I will hunt you AND the night!" He said boldly.  
"Now the curtain shall rise on our delightful little gam-"  
Leon gave the Vampire a quick crack from his whip.  
Unexpectedly to both of them, the barrier that was protecting Walter shattered before the Vampire's eyes.  
"What!?"  
"Nothing will protect you now! I will fulfil my promise to Sara!"  
"The night is still young, boy. I will show you the true meaning of terror!"

He vanished away in a beam of bright light and his booming, echoing laugh. Leon kept his guard up, his eyes and ears were ready for when he appeared again. Flames? Quickly he turned around to see a dark fireball coming toward him. He jumped out of the way and gave Walter a crack from his whip before his opponent vanished away. Again, he kept on his toes. Only this time, he held a bottle of holy water that bad the combined power of the Green Orb fused into it. Walter appeared again, charging a devastating fire attack. Leon threw with a blessed bottle over, it smashed and it's contents spewed out over the Vampire. The floor became engulfed with several pillars of fire. They began to sting Walter as he began to cry out in pain from the flames burning his skin. He vanished out of the attack and materialised behind Leon punching him with a fist full of flames. His blond locks became singed by the attack. He wiped the blood from his hand using the palm of his right hand. He assumed that he couldn't rely on the Ring of Fire for every attack that Walter dished out. He allowed the small amount of blood to become one with the whip. It began to glow a dull white as the enchantment flowed through it. Leon gave a smile as he cracked the whip at Walter. The Vampire held his wound at the end of the sweeping powerful combo, it hurt a lot more than what it did a few moments ago. He let out a massive his as he levitated up into the air. Leon could have sworn that he saw the Vampire change. However, he couldn't focus on that tiny detail as Walter was getting ready for a super attack; Demonic Megiddo. Leon ran to the other side of the room with such speed that he thought his legs were going to tangle. Walter released the large fire attack, it covered the whole area in a circle of fire and destruction. Leon could feel the heat radiating off the mushroom of fire that came from the attack. He only just managed to dodge the attack, he prayed that this would be the only time he would use that attack. Once the flames had died down, Leon dashed straight in for another attack. Sadly, during that last attack, the enchantment on the whip had vanished. The less blood that was used, the less time the effect would last.  
He slapped Walter with the whip, which forced him to let out another hiss. The Vampire was still recovering from that last attack. It was only for a few brief moments, but Leon took this moment to wail on him. He rose back up to his strength and a powerful gust of wind catapulted Leon away. He shook back onto his feet and was ready for another strike. Pulling the dagger out, he sliced his right hand and watch the blood pour from the wound. Walter's attention rose to the fact that his opponent was bleeding, letting out a small but sharp hiss. Leon placed his bloodied hand on the whip and watch it light up again. Walter vanished from the field again, reappearing behind Leon. With one last moment, the blond man turned around and cracked the whip at Walter. He let out another his as Leon pulled out another fast pace sweeping combo. However, Walter broke the flashy moves by allowing a fireball to sore through the air and directly hit Leon in the chest. With that kind of firepower, Leon should have suffered a third degree burn. Thanks to the Ring of Fire, the attack was minimised, leaving a median size first-degree burn on his chest. Leon placed himself back onto his feet, pulled the whip back and launched it at Walter. Whipping him across his face. The Vampire gave another growl and had a quick transformation. Demonic Megiddo was coming. Leon ran for cover, but this time, he was a few seconds too late. He was caught up in the aftershock of the attack. Swept up by the flames, he flew and came to rest on the floor. He rolled over, with the dagger in hand and wrapped the burning white whip around Walter's neck. The grip intensified, prevent Walter from pulling in a breath. Leon jabbed the dagger into the Vampire's neck and he slumped over.

Leon moved away from the body.  
Walter slowly rose his head, his gaze fixated on the human.  
"How?" He said weakly.  
"Skill...Sara's suffering...Rinaldo's grief...Carve them into your soul and perish!"  
He was shocked. Shocked that he had been defeated, "With my power...I will certainly...Come back to life."  
"I do not think so..." A voice said.  
An Angel stood behind Leon. Walter's eyes glistened as he gazed upon his beauty. However, his eyes turned fearful as the Angel gave a smile.  
"It is your time Walter." His wings flicked.  
"...You are the one that has been hunting me!"  
"You can not run from death. It is a natural part of life. Mortal or immortal, no one can escape forever. We all perish."  
Walter shook his head frantically, disbelieving that it was his time. He rose up to his feet as the Angel summon a weapon. It was a large scythe, with a human skull at the end, the blade came from where the war would be. Sky blue, ocean blue, magenta and deep purple wisps floated around the skull of the scythe. Crimson red glowing engravings shone on the blade of the scythe, though it was in a language that Leon could not read. The Angel raised the scythe high above his head, swinging down to Walter's body as he pleaded for him not to.  
"I shall take this soul!"  
A skeleton creature appeared, it was large and it flew in the air. Its massive cape blew like wings and it was in the shape of bat wings. Wielding a scythe as well, it sent shivers down Leon's spine.  
"I give this soul to the one who wields the Crimson Stone."  
The soul flew around one area in the air, collecting all of the dark aura that surrounded the room. Leon did not understand why, but it soon became clear to him.  
"Mathias?"  
His old friend levitated himself gently onto the ground, "I have never spent a more beautiful night..."  
"What is going on?"  
"You did not fail to disappoint me Leon. I knew that you would claim victory today."  
"I am not your servant! What is going on!?"  
"I was using you."  
"What?"  
"You, Sara, Rinaldo and Walter. All of you."  
"Like puppets at a play, all on strings really." The Angel said.  
Leon's gritted his teeth, "What kind of an Angel are you!? Siding with someone who has abandoned humanity!"  
"Oh, so you know..." Mathias said.  
"That you are a Vampire?" He noticed the stone that Mathias had around his neck.  
"The Crimson Stone..."  
"Oh you are familiar with it I see. The greatest of the Vampire treasure, I made Walter's power mine using the stone."  
"I can sense it. The darkness that spews us from your body, it is almost revolting. How could you become a Vampire?"  
"Elisabetha... God took her away from me... I obtained eternal life so I can get my revenge on him for taking her from me. Surely you must share a similar pain Leon?"  
Leon looked down to whip that was in his hand, the glow vanished, his body was beginning to clot.  
"I understand how you feel..."  
"We risk our lives in God's name... What do we get in return? Nothing! He took my loved one away from me and then he had the guts to send an Angel!" He pointed to the one that stood next to Death, "Down to me, just to rub the fact that He had taken my love away! With eternity, I can curse him forevermore!"  
"Should I tell him?" The Angel whispered to Death.  
"Leave it, let them argue... It is entertaining."  
"Mathias..."  
"After all that you have been through, surely you have similar feelings towards Him?" Mathias said.  
"Yes, I do feel something towards him."  
"Then join me, I can grant you eternity too." He moves his hands around, gesturing his proportion to his friend.  
"You fool." The human sighed.  
"What?" Shock brushed Mathias' face.  
"Is this what Elisabetha would have wanted? For you to spend eternity hating God? The Mathias know would not have loved that woman!"  
"She was a kind and gentle soul... She was concerned over me until the very end. That is why I hate Him for taking her away. Am I wrong to think like this? Did you not defeat Walter with hatred in your heart?"  
Leon's mannerisms changed, slight rage filled his heart, "I would be lying if I said no. But the deference is Mathias, I have prevented others from suffering the same tragic fate that she did... That was Sara's dying wish... Granting my beloved's wish, that is all I can do to prove my love to her. Eternity without her would be nothing but emptiness..."  
"... Of all the people... I thought you would have understood Leon... Dawn is coming... Death, he is all yours."  
Mathias transformed into a bat and fled from the scene.


	18. Chapter 18- Full Truth

"No! Wait!"  
Leon watched as Mathias flew away.  
"By my master's orders, you shall-"  
The Angel flew up into the air and the pair of them clashed scythes, "Samiel? What are you doing?"  
"You do not have to fight. He deserves to know the truth..."  
Death looked down at the young man, "But I can not disobey they will of the Crimson Stone."  
"You are a Head Reaper! An Angel of Death! Do not forget your role in this world! One order will not kill you. The one who wields it has gone, you can defy the order."  
Death lowered his scythe and the pair floated back down. Leon just looked at them with a confused look.  
Samiel bowed, his wings stretched out as he did so, "Hello Leon, I am the Angel Samiel."  
"I thought you said the truth."  
"An Angel can not lie... What are you?"  
Samiel rose back up, "A Death Bringer. The last of my kin. Half Angel, Half Demon. A creation of the Archangel Azreal, to serve as an Assassin of the cycle of Death."  
"I see..."  
"It was I who kill Elisabetha."  
"What!?" Leon's eyes blinked several times.  
"Though it was not by God's will that her death happened. But it was by a God."

"The God of Time, Chrono. He asked both Cain and I to step in, allowing events to flow as he planned them to."  
"...So we were all his puppets?"  
"I away yes. But, do not be angry at him. All of this was for a good cause, trust me."  
"I have no choice do I?"  
Death shook his head.  
"What of Sara's fate? Was that meant to happen?"  
"Vampire Killer is necessary for future events. It is the signature weapon of your Clan and one of the only weapons that can face up to the hordes of Hell. So you tell me."  
"A necessary sacrifice then..."  
"We must return to our duties Leon. Goodbye for now."  
The two of them were about to leave.  
"Wait, Death. Can... you tell Mathias one thing."  
"Make it quick."  
"Thank you, You have become a cursed being and I will never forgive you. This whip and my kinsmen will destroy you someday. From this day on, the Belmont Clan will hunt the night."  
"Ooo I liked that last part. We will meet again Leon." Samiel said.  
"When I die?"  
"More than likely."  
The two of them vanished.  
Leon gave a large sigh of relief and exited the castle as the daylight finally shone over the forest.

****

Before Leon's journey...

Soma Cruz, the reincarnation of Dracula stood in the centre of the Dimensional Rift. He allowed his eyes to gaze at the familiar area. The multiple shades of blue time streams weaving together, forming in the centre. This allowed time to flow in every dimension that Father Time had power over, which was most of them. Soma had never seen so much blue in his life, even the stars that were in the sky had a shade of blue tint to them. The space sky was a navy rather than a black. His eyes darted back to the centre of the area, noticing Chrono in the centre. Soma dashed over to him and giving a smile to the dragon. The boy sat next to the human dragon and placed his soft hand in the dragon's mane like hair. However, he felt strange. A feeling which was unknown to him, he wasn't where he was. He brought his hand near his face, it was transparent.  
"What!?"  
Soma leapt to his feet, his whole body was becoming transparent. He didn't understand why it was happening, but Chrono gave a sigh.  
"I am sorry that this has happened to you Soma."  
He gave the dragon a confused look, "What is happening?"  
"Please do not panic... Your history is changing."  
Still having no idea what the dragon was talking about, Soma took in a deep breath and sat down, allowing the dragon some time to explain.  
"This world currently has two Timelines. An A and an B world let's say. Events happen differently in each reality. You were born in the A world."  
"Okay."  
"In the B reality, the Demon Castle War took place in the late 1800s. Sadly, Dracula won and the Belmonts went into hiding. The conflict still has not been resolved. However, A and B have begun to merge together."  
Soma's eyes widened, "How?"  
"Well, Actrise originated from B, Shaft found a spell to bring her to your reality. However, this was minor and it resulted in Richter giving birth to Elijah."  
"Elijah is a doctor who works in London... he saves lives."  
"So we left that event how it was. Placing Actrise did not seem to change too much in your reality. However, when Dracula resurrected in the-"  
"That was supposed to happen in B?"  
Chronogave a smile, "Yes. Sadly, doing so resulted in A and B fusing together. There is no way to stop it. Since the War happened so early in B, you will vanish. Disappear entirely."  
"That can't be true! What about Mina!?"  
"Vanish."  
"Genya!? Yoko!? Everyone...?"  
"Vanish."  
Soma looked down with tears in his eyes and sadness in his heart. Realising that he would vanish was a daunting thought. He would never have existed, he was going to die. All of his efforts to keep Dracula away, preventing him from becoming consumed by his power. It was all for nothing.  
"Is...There anything we can do?"  
Chronothought for a moment, "There is one thing."  
"Tell me!"  
"Create a new Timeline, a reboot if you will."  
Soma wiped his eyes, "Go on."  
"As the God of Time and Dimensions, I shall create a new Timeline for your friends to live in. Though some events may change."  
"Change? How?"  
Chrono gave a smile, "The events will not take place the same way that you remember, but at the core, they will be the same. They will just feel different."  
"How will I feel the difference?"  
"You will remember what happened in your original Timeline."  
Shock smacked Soma in the face, "No way."  
"Sadly, I can only cross so many people over to the new Timeline. The only two people that I need to cross over are Magnus and Actrise."  
"An Incubus? Why? They are extinct. I understand her, she's the reason why Richter has Elijah."  
"Exactly, he may be a Demon, but having him in your time would improve your life for the better."  
Soma gave a shrug of his shoulders, "How would I remember though?"  
"You will be born with the memories implanted into your subconscious. Over time you will remember them, but certain events you will never remember or you will remember after the event. For example, you can not know that you are Dracula before your powers awaken."  
"I agree that would be weird."  
"Plus you will only remember why you saw. Magnus will only remember his old life up until the 1800 when he attacked Richter and was killed by his whip."  
Soma thought for a moment, "Forcing him to change his actions and be a better person."  
"Which would make him easy for the League to tame. But he will not remember it for quite a while. The only side effect of doing this is that you may lose your sense of belonging. However, it will pass."  
"Okay then, how many people can you cross over?"  
"Four."  
"Only four...? Magnus and I, that makes two, then Actrise... Alucard."  
Chronogave an interested look, "Why? You do not know him."  
Soma looked to the ground, "That's true. But if it prevents Richter from becoming depressed as he was, then that's good enough for me."  
Chronothought for a moment, "Yes, that could work."  
"Good."  
The dragon rose to his feet and flew into the air. His body became wrapped in a blanket of blue energy, sucking in and absorbing the flow of energy that was around him. His wings spread out allowing his markings to shine, revealing all of them on his body. It was truly a rare sight to see, it was not every day that Soma got to witness a new Timeline being formed. Soma sat down and watched it all unfolded, as his body came back to its original opacity.  
Slowly, Chronofloated back down to the ground. He landed in a heap as Soma rushed over to him.  
"It is done."  
Soma gave a nod, "Thank you. Will my friends act the same?"  
He nodded as his breathing was a little heavy, "They might act slightly different, but they are the same."  
"Okay. Thank you again."  
"There is just one thing. Samiel! Lucifer!"  
Lucifer was the first one out of the pair to appear, in bright white light. His divine Angelic wings lit the scene as they came to rest. His hair was short and jet black. His eyes were a golden colour, staring back at the two of them. He wore a white ash covered robe which draped over his body.  
Samiel appeared in a flash of light, he too allowed his wings to rest.  
Soma looked at the two of them with confusion, "An Angel and the Devil?"  
"Death Bringer and an Archangel, the two of them have a specific role to play in the events to come."  
"I thought I felt a shift," Lucifer said.  
"They know? How?" Soma asked.  
"Creations of Divine power can sense the shift in the Timestream. Both Lucifer and Samiel can travel through dimensions. With Lucifer freely being able to travel from the mortal realm and Hell at will. Samiel has to collect the souls throughout all the worlds."  
"Cool..."  
"The two of you shall aid the human warrior Leon. Lucifer, grab Cain, he will help guide Leon through his quest."  
"Understood."  
"Samiel, you need to kill Mathias' wife Elisabetha to make sure all of the events happen."  
Samiel nodded.  
"But neither of you can interfere when Leon faces Walter."  
"Understood."  
"Just do not reveal why you are there to Leon until the end."  
"Okay. Will you be sending Soma back?" Lucifer said.  
"I shall return him to where he is needed."  
Soma vanished from the area and Chronogave a smile.

*****- 1117

The young dark blond man looked over his father's bled dry body. It was the son of Leon Belmont, crying over his body.  
Leon's spirit watched from afar as his son cried his heart out.  
"So we meet again Leon."  
"Samiel?" Leon turned around to see the Angel, "I-I can not leave this world yet... My son lacks the knowledge and skills to hunt the night. He does not have the strength to face Mathias when he returns."  
"I see your dilemma. How were you struck?"  
"A giant wolf."  
"Known as a Werewolf. You wish to teach him?"  
Leon gave a nod.  
Samiel gave a sigh, "The blood of a Death Bringer can revive the dead."  
Leon gasped, "What? Your blood can

do that?"  
The Angel looked back at Leon's body, "Though that was the reason why I am the last. We were hunted for it. Humans had found out about this secret."  
"And killed your kin for it..."  
"Plus using it can have nasty side effects, for starters you will be prone to mind control and insanity."  
"Oh..."  
"I prefer a different method."  
"What would that be?"  
"I prevent your soul and all of your kin from ascending to Heaven or Hell. That way there will always be an ancestor to train the descendants."  
Leon thought about that for a moment, but the answer was obvious, "How long will I stay for?"  
"Until Mathias has been truly defeated."  
"That is more than enough time. Please do it Samiel."  
The Angel summoned his scythe and swiped the ground around Leon's feet. Multiple coloured flames surrounded him. He felt a strange change like he's been grounded by a weight. The same thing happened to his son. The flames soon died down and Samiel vanished.  
"Thank you..."  
Leon floated over to his son, "Hello son."  
The boy looked behind him to see his father floating...He leapt up at the sight and scuttered away.  
"Son... it is okay."  
The boy calmed down, "Father... you are a spirit?"  
"I am and I will stay here until he is going."

To be continued...

Date created; 18th June 2018  
Date Finished; 11th July 2018 (beta)  
Date of editing finished; 26th July 2019


End file.
